Code: LYOKO ne!
by Ketchum Kid
Summary: Just as the Lyoko Warriors are getting used to their normal lives, they are contacted by a mysterious girl, who tells them that XANA isn't as dead as they thought. But just as this new battle gets underway, the original Warriors get sent off to Japan, only to be replaced by...magical girls? With new allies and enemies at hand, Jeremie has one question: How do you trust a Martian?
1. Return to a World with Danger

_Well, after some delays, I finally am able to start the last of my Generation I fics, and the last in my Negima Crossover Trilogy. And this is definitely hitting uncharted territory, as this is the first Code Lyoko/Negima fic on Fanfiction. The basis behind this story? Well, Code Lyoko was rekindled in me, and a few events got rolling in my head, then I found out the Code Speed and Exit Trance cover art designs, and, well, this was born. Pending on the fact that MSN is still in production, this can be anywhere between 150-200 chapters long, maybe even longer! To make it easier on me, I'm doing something new, and am breaking it up into seasons, with a two month break between each season to give me planning time. Season one is called **Un Cristal Sans Danger**, and will consist of 26 chapters, same as CL season 1. So sit back, and enjoy the show!_

* * *

><p><strong>Code Lyoko-ne!<strong>

**A Code: LYOKO/Mahora Sensei Negima! Fanfiction**

**Chapter 1: Return to a World with Danger**

Two months had passed since XANA, the multi-agent program bent on destroying all of humanity, was eliminated by the Lyoko Warriors – Jeremie Belpois, Ulrich Stone, Odd Della Robbia, Yumi Ishyama, and Aelita Stones (Schaeffer). Since then, the former warriors have settled into a much more relaxed lifestyle at their school, Kadic Academy, in suburban Paris, France - one that didn't include saving the world. Relationships between the former members were slowly but surely strengthening. Even though they weren't official, it was clearly apparent that Jeremie and Aelita were a couple. Same with Ulrich and Yumi, though it was not as noticeable. Odd – well, he was just, er, Odd.

The group had also accepted new members in as well. William Dunbar, the onetime Lyoko Warrior that was also a slave to XANA, was forgiven for his recklessness, but is still haunted by the nightmares of his time under XANA. He's also stopped flirting with Yumi, much to Ulrich's relief. Elisabeth "Sissi," Delmas, the principal's daughter, was also accepted into the group, but strangely enough, isn't going after Ulrich anymore. Wheather she's accepted him and Yumi being together is another matter in itself. Rounding out the group is Patrick Belpois, Jeremie's more athletic cousin. The latter has historically disliked him, but since helping stop XANA in one of his attacks, the two are on much better terms. While he originally had only a brief stay at Kadic, he later returned, and now shares a dorm room with his cousin.

Jeremie had neat blonde hair and blue eyes, and wore glasses, a red t-shirt, khaki pants with a neon blue stripe down the side, and light blue sneakers. Ulrich had brown hair that was parted to his right side and brown eyes, and wore a black t-shirt under a forest green jacket with rolled up sleeves, jeans, nd black sneakers. Odd was the, um, oddball – Blonde hair that was jelled back and had a small purple patch in the middle, a purple hooded short sleeved sweatshirt over a magenta shirt with long purple sleeves, jeans with faded blue pockets, a belt, and red sneakers. Yumi, who was of Japanese descent, had short silky black hair that fell to her shoulders, black eyes, and wore a black long sleeved shirt that had blue stars on the bottom left and exposed her belly, black pants, and black sneakers. Aelita, for some reason, had pink hair and faded red eyes, and wore a long sleeved magenta shirt with a pink hood and two pom-poms under a purple overalls skirt with magenta boots that had white cuffs and a white line down the middle. William had messy jet black hair, blue eyes, and wore a brown jacket over a black t-shirt with red writing, black jeans, and brown sneakers. Sissi had black hair that fell to her chest, brown eyes, and wore a yellow headband, a pink t-shirt with a yellow heart that exposed part of her belly, blue jeans, and red sneakers. Finally, Patrick had brown hair that was spiked and parted to his right, blue eyes, and wore a black motorcycle jacket over a grey V-neck t-shirt, black jeans, and black sneakers.

On this particular day, the group was gathered around a bench just outside the snack machine room, where XANA had first attacked the warriors two years before. Jeremie and Odd were sitting on the bench, passing a laptop back and forth. While Jeremie looked as calm as could be, Odd had sweat visible on his forehead.

"Checkmate!" Jeremie declared. Apparently, they were playing online chess on the laptop.

"Ooh, no fair, Einstein!" Odd complained. "The agreement was for you to go easy on me!"

"Hate to break it to you, Odd," Jeremie replied, "but I was going easy on you."

"And yet he beat you in under four minutes," William remarked. "That's got to be a record here."

"Actually, Jeremie beat Herb last week in under two minutes," Yumi commented.

"Regardless, now Odd can't complain about being scrawny for the rest of the day," Aelita said. "Otherwise, he'll lose-"

"I AM NOT SCRAWNY!" Odd shouted. "I'm svelte!"

"-dinner." The others simply laughed.

"Oh man," he groaned. "And it was supposed to be meatballs and spaghetti too."

"Well I'm certainly not taking it," Ulrich remarked. "I need to cram for a test tomorrow, and extra food is the last thing I need." He looked at Jeremie. "Putting my mind to work, however, could actually help."

"White or black?" As the two began the next round of chess, Patrick looked at Sissi.

"So what did your father want to ask you about?" he asked her.

"He said he's starting an exchange program with a school in Japan," the former brat replied, "and wanted me to sign up for it. Normally, I would go so as to try to get an edge on Yumi [Yumi: Hmph!], but as I've given up on Ulrich, I have no desire to go to Japan."

"That's cool." William remarked. "If I could convince my parents that I could still do well in school, I'd sign up for it."

"What's the name of the other school?" Yumi asked. "I have some relatives in Japan that teach."

"He said Mahora Academy near Tokyo." This caught Jeremie and Aelita's attention.

"Did you say Mahora Academy?" the pinkette asked.

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"Something wrong, cousin?" Patrick asked.

"No, but it's just that I've heard it in the news recently." He typed into his keyboard, bringing up an article titled: **Mahora Academy: Movie Studio or Magic Campus?** Pictures of people on broomsticks were using wands to attack demonic-like creatures.

"Cool!" Odd stated. "They're finally finishing Martian Robot Army vs. Academy Defense Magical Knight Corps!"

"If you ask me," William remarked, "that's a really lame title for a movie." Jeremie nodded.

"Yeah, but it's caused a lot of stir due to the fact that nobody seemed to know who the producer is. Listen to this: 'As there is no word on who is creating this movie, we are left to speculate on the nature of the extremely life-like special effects used in the film. These techniques, however, are not new to us, as they appear to be the same ones used in the first shooting that occurred during the end of the Mahora Academy Festival, and the Martial Arts Tournament held just a few days prior. Curiously, two characters appear in both: ten-year-old English professor Negi Springfield of Wales, and the mysterious benefactor of the Martial Arts Tournament,-"

"_**Me!" **_Suddenly, another window popped up, as the image of a girl, about their age, appeared on the monitor. The girl had black hair that was braided into two pigtails, and tied into two cloth buns. The buns were tied with yellow ribbon, and the ends of each pigtail were tied with a pink ribbon. She had bright red eyes, rosy pink cheeks, and an innocent expression. They could see the top of her clothing, which was a red Chinese top with short sleeves and white lacing. In the background were sets of moving 1's and 0's.

"Wa-huh?" Jeremie gasped.

"_Greetings, Lyoko Warriors!"_ The girl greeted.

"A video chat!" Sissi remarked in surprise. The others, however, were stunned by something else she said.

"You know Lyoko?" Jeremie said, stunned. The girl nodded.

"_Of course I know Lyoko,"_ she replied, _"since I'm speaking through the same method that Aelita used two years ago."_

"Lyoko?" Patrick wondered. "What's that? Some kind of rock band or something?"

"I think so," Sissi replied. "But why would Aelita be a part of it? She plays with the Subdigitals." The two looked at the former The Lyoko warriors, who were at a complete loss for words.

"Ah…uh…"

"_Don't worry,"_ the girl assured. _"Your friends will explain everything along the way to the factory." _The group was stunned.

"Say what?" Ulrich exclaimed.

"The factory?" Yumi reiterated.

"Why?" Jeremie asked.

"_Because in about ten seconds, you'll realize that you need to go there anyway."_

"And you know this how?"

"_Martians never lie, Jeremie."_

"….What?" Before he could get an answer, the window vanished.

"Okay," Patrick began. "Does anyone know what the heck just-?"

"**EEEEEK!"**

The group turned towards the source of the noise, and were instantly horrified at what they saw. Floating – yes, floating – through the mass of panicked students was what appeared to be a giant jellyfish, at least 16 feet in height without the tentacles. It had eight of them, which were attached to a red body. The top of the body was a clear liquid that housed what looked like a brain. Four small pointed appendages came out of its body, with a larger, fifth appendage in the middle. On this appendage was a strange black eye-like mark. It had a dot surrounded by a circle, plus three short lines sticking out at the bottom, and one at the top. Next to it were a pair of yellow creatures that looked like brains on a claw (the claw was its legs), which also sported the black eye.

"Aah!" Sissi gasped.

"Odd," Patrick asked, "I thought you said that they would have pasta tonight, not seafood."

"No…!" Aelita was beginning to break down in tears. "It can't be…we killed him…HE killed him!"

"Killed who?" Sissi asked. "And we should get moving, that jellyfish is heading for us!"

"We'll explain on the way," Jeremie promised, but for now, we have to head for the factory."

"The wha?"

"Just follow us."

"I'll stay here," Ulrich said, looking at the distraught Aelita. "We can all guess on who the Scyphozoa's target is."

"Skipasoa?" Sissi questioned. She didn't get an answer, as Odd dragged her towards the forest. "Hey!"

"No time to chat!" he said. "Unless you want to lose your brains!" The seven left into the woods, leaving Ulrich to fend off the Scyphozoa and its underlings.

"Two Kankrelats and a Scyphozoa," he muttered. "Not my idea of brain training."

* * *

><p>"So basically, you guys have been sneaking off for the last two years in order to save the world from a computer entity named XANA, who until now you thought was destroyed." Sissi and Patrick were given a brief crash course on who XANA was and what its motives were.<p>

"Pretty much, yes," Jeremie nodded, helping Sissi out of the sewer.

"And it was created by Aelita's father, who sacrificed himself to make sure it worked?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, it appears that XANA somehow evaded it, and is now back for revenge. I'm guessing that he wants to use the Scyphozoa to throw Aelita into the Digital Sea."

"I'm guessing that's bad," Patrick remarked.

"If you fall into the Digital Sea, its game over," William said. "Jeremie won't be able to bring you back."

"What I'd like to know is how XANA managed to cheat death," Yumi wondered. They reached the elevator door.

"U-um, I'm not entirely sure that it's safe to ride that thing," Sissi cautioned. "I-it looks like it could fall apart at any second."

"Relax, Sissi," Odd said, smirking. "You've used it several times already; you just haven't realized it." The principal's daughter was confused, but got on the elevator anyway. They soon zoomed down into the depths of the factory, stopping at a door that was protected by a passcode. Jeremie punched in the code, and the door opened, revealing a very modern-looking room, dominated by a circular object in the center, and a series of computer monitors not far away. Jermeie sat down in a chair in the rear of the room, opposite of the monitors, and…nothing happened.

"That's strange..." he wondered. "The Supercomputer must not be powered on…" He turned to his friends. "Hang on a second." He returned into the elevator, and headed further down, leaving Sissi and Patrick to marvel at the equipment.

"Woah!" Patrick gasped. "This is all incredible! You guys weren't lying at all!"

Sissi sat in the chair. "So, why's this chair all alone in the-wah!" The chair suddenly moved towards the monitors, throwing Sissi to the floor. A holographic image of a globe appeared, with four series of islands forming a plus inside of it. Soon, Jeremie returned to the lab, and took his customary seat at the now- powered monitors.

"Let's see…Lyoko's all on-line…no activated towers…how did XANA get his monsters onto Earth?"

"Did you check for any on the replicas?" Yumi suggested.

"No, but I will."

"Replica?" Sissi asked.

"After XANA left the Supercomputer," Odd explained, "he created a bunch of replicas of Lyoko in other supercomputers around the world, in order to expand his power. We went into the Digital Sea in a ship called the Skid in order to find and destroy them."

"Yeah," Yumi added, "but since the Skid was destroyed, we can't go and deactivate a tower if it is in a-"

"You were right, Yumi. There's an activated tower in a replica." Odd groaned.

"Great, how are we going to get there? By swimming?"

"No, but I can activate the corresponding tower on Lyoko and disable it remotely. I'll need Aelita to do it, though. You and Yumi head into the scanners to back her up, okay?" Odd was estatic.

"Alright! The Lyoko Warriors are back in action!" He then saw his cousin's sullen face. "N-not that that's a good thing…" he added. Jeremie walked up to her.

"I know what you're thinking, but we need you to help deactivate the tower. Besides, if XANA is still alive, maybe your father is as well."

"…alright." Aelita joined the other two in the elevator, and headed down into another room of the factory.

"And me?" William asked.

"I need you as backup. If XANA decides to send his monsters here, I need people to protect the Supercomputer. If that gets destroyed, we lose all means of fighting XANA."

"So how do you get to Lyoko?" Patrick wondered.

"Just watch," William answered. "Jeremie is, after all, the Einstein of Kadic Academy." Jeremie put on his headset.

"The replica is the Forest Sector, so I'm sending you guys over there. Are you in the scanners?"

"_Yes."_

"_I'm here!"_

"_We're all ready, Jeremie."_

"Ok, I'll start the transfer procedure." He paused, wondering if what he was doing wasn't reality. "Transfer, Aelita! Transfer, Odd! Transfer, Yumi! Scanner, Aelita! Scanner, Odd! Scanner, Yumi! Virtualization!"

* * *

><p>Back at Kadic, Ulrich was not doing well. Without a weapon, he was constantly dodging the Kankreltas' lasers. Strangely enough, the Scyphozoa wasn't giving chase after Aelita and the others. It was almost as if Aelita wasn't its intended target.<p>

"**Hey! You overgrown sushi dish!"**

"Jim?" Jim Morales, the P.E. teacher and campus supervisor at Kadic, appeared, wielding a pipe that had one end of it sawed off at an angle.

"Get away from my students! YAAARRRRGG!" Jim made a charge at the Scyphozoa, which simply moved out of the way, allowing Jim to race past…

**!THWACK!**

…and straight into a tree. The impact knocked the P.E. teacher out cold, and the pipe flew out of his hands, striking a Kankrelat that was about to fire at Ulrich. The Kankrelat disappeared, while the pipe stuck out of the ground, pointed end down.

Seeing that the pipe was nearby, Ulrich quickly went over and yanked it out of the ground, dodging a laser blast in the process. He then made a charge at the second Kankrelat, and struck it in the eye. The Kankrelat fritzed for a second, then disappeared.

"Yes!" Ulrich then noticed a pair of the Scyphozoa's tentacles wrapping around him. "Ah, no!" He glowed red, and was lifted into the air until he was level with the Scyphozoa's eye. Three more tentacles were brought towards Ulrich's face: one on either side, and one at the top. Once they were in position, red energy began to transfer from the tips of the tentacles to the creature's 'brain', with Ulrich wide-eyed throughout the process. This continued for a few minutes, before the Scyphozoa let go of the teen, who fell to the ground, out like a light.

The Scyphozoa then turned towards the forest. Its other targets were not at the academy.

* * *

><p>Back at the factory, Jeremie was sweating bullets. "Watch out!" he yelled into his headseat. "Four more Blocks to your right!"<p>

"_We're doing the best we can here, Einsti-YEOW!"_ A card with Odd's name on it flashed for a second, as a value on the card dropped to 20.

"Careful, Odd! Only twenty more life points left!"

"_Jeremie, we can't reach the tower with just the three of us!" _Yumi said. _"They're just too many monsters!"_

"_Send in the others!"_ Aelita asked.

"Alrght, I'll send William as backup."

"_No. Send Sissi and Patrick in as well."_

"What? Need I remind you that if they go, their memories won't be affected by the Return to the Past?"

"_Yeah, but that won't do us any good if we aren't able to deactivate that tower!"_

"_We're all for it, Einstein! That's three vo-yaow!" _Odd's card value hit zero, and quickly was drained of all color.

"Odd, no!" The boy genius turned to William, Sissi, and Patrick. "You three, head for the scanner room. The others can't hold out much longer on Lyoko."

"Alright." William responded.

"Okay," Patrick added. Sissi?

"What? Go into a virtual war zone?" Jeremie sighed, while Patrick looked at William.

"Ready, William?"

"On three."

"Hey, what are you guys-?"

"THREE!" The two boys jumped Sissi, and managed to subdue her.

"HEY! Let me go!"

"Sorry, but it's for our own good!"

"Okay, head for the scanner room. It's the one just below us."

"Alright." The two carried her into the elevator, and William hit the down button. When the doors opened again, the three were presented with a room consisting of three cylinder-like objects, which were open on one side, and had a mess of wires connecting the top of them with the ceiling.

Odd was also there, stumbling out of the center scanner. "You okay, Odd?" Patrick asked.

"Yeah. Are you guys going in?"

"Yeah."

"Then be careful. It's worse than Call of Duty in there." William and Patrick stepped into the scanners. Doing so, however, meant that they had to let go of Sissi…

"I'm not stepping foot in those crazy contraptions!" she stated. Odd had an idea to get her to go.

"Ya know, you take a different form when you go to Lyoko," he stated.

"So?"

"Ulrich's form wears spandex."

"…Okay Jeremie! I'm ready to go!" She stepped into the scanners.

"Since when did Ulrich wear spandex?" William asked.

"Oh yeah, Jeremie changed our appearances just after you got captured, I guess to keep it similar to yours." The scanner doors closed.

"_Since two of you are inexperienced at fighting, I'll virtualize you a bit further from the fighting. Transfer, William! Transfer, Patrick! Transfer, Sissi!" _Bright lights came up from the bottom of the scanner and passed through to the top, creating a wind of sorts._ "Scanner, William! Scanner, Patrick! Scanner, Sissi!"_ The bodies in the scanners began to float up while spinning at the same time. _"Virtualization!"_

* * *

><p>The three appeared in midair, in some sort of virtual forest. Leafless trees were everywhere, either in the ground, or suspended in midair. The ground wasn't there at most points, as there were only platforms and pathways that were suspended in midair. The three fell onto a platform, with William kneeling to absorb the impact, and Patrick and Sissi…landing on their rears.<p>

"OW!" They both exclaimed.

"That could have been a bit softer…" Patrick groaned.

"It happen to all of us on the first try," William remarked. "Jeremie! We're all here safely."

"_That's good. Welcome to the Forest Sector, guys!"_ the two newcomers were startled at Jeremie's voice.

"Jeremie?" Patrick called out.

"Where are you?" Sissy asked.

"_I'm still in the control room. Think of me as your eyes in the sky, as I'll keep you informed on anything and everything that happens. Take a look around; you should be in your new virtual forms."_

The two looked at themselves, and were surprised, to say the least. Sissi was now wearing her two-tone pink and white cheerleader's outfit, except that a red spandex suit was under it. A yellow heart was imprinted on the chest of her outfit. She was also holding a small white cheerleader's baton. She twirled it once in her hand.

"But I quit cheerleading last year…" she remarked.

Patrick was wearing a black and white spandex suit. The color pattern of the top made it appear like he was wearing a tuxedo. He also wore brown reinforced bootsOn his side were two black guns. He examined them, before aiming one at a tree. He fired it, and an energy blast shot out, making a nice little hole in the tree.

"Cool," he remarked. "Did you design this, Jeremie?"

"_No. The supercomputer reads into your subconscious, and projects them onto your digital incarnation."_

"It worked out pretty well for me," William commented. He was wearing a spandex suit as well, which consisted of a white top, a two-tone teal bottom, a loose red belt-like stripe, and white reinforced boots. A black stripe ran down the middle of the top, and the sleeves were white on the top, and black on the bottom. He also carried a Zanbato sword that had a red handle.

"Hey!" Sissi yelled. "Why do they get the cool weapons? All I have is this stupid baton!" She twirled it again. "All it can do is to extend the-" The baton suddenly extended to twenty feet in length. Since it was spinning, the baton clubbed everyone in the gut or head. William and Patrick were both knocked into trees, while Sissi was knocked off the ledge of the platform, and was falling into the Digital Sea…that is, until she landed on a pale purple hoverscooter that had a red jewel on the front.

"_Careful, Sissi! You just made everyone lose ten life points!"_

Sissi slowly got up, and piloted the vehicle back to the platform. She stepped off and picked up her baton.

"If extend made it grow," Patrick stated, then some word must make it return to its original size."

"R-retract." On Sissi's command, the baton retracted back into its original shape. "On second thought, I'll keep this."

"_Heh, you sound just like Odd when he first came to Lyoko."_

"_Ya know I'm still here, Einstein?"_

"_But you did say that about your cat outfit. Okay, I'm sending the Overbike. Patrick can ride that, while William and Sissi share the Overwing. Sorry I couldn't give you separate vehicles; Aelita's using the Overboard right now."_

A black monocycle appeared next to Patrick, who climbed on it. William, meanwhile, climbed onto the Overwing, Sissi following suit. She held onto his waist so as not to fall off.

"Which way, Jeremie?" William asked.

"_Head due south. The tower's at 35 degrees north, 30 degrees should be able to see it within a few minutes."_

"Okay, thanks!" Patrick and William piloted their vehicles towards the way tower, following a pathway that cut through the sector.

* * *

><p>"Their weapons suit them," Odd remarked. "Patrick always reminded me of James Bond, and Sissi was a cheerleader way back when."<p>

"Yeah," Jeremie agreed. "Now let's see how they fare against XANA and his monsters."

"Yah?"

"Huh?" Jeremie turned around, and saw that the Scyphozoa had now captured Odd, and was now draining red energy from him. "ODD!"

* * *

><p>Back on Lyoko, William was giving tips on fighting XANA's monsters. "The only guaranteed way to kill his monsters is to hit them in the Eye mark that they have on them. You can also knock them into the Digital Sea or crush them between objects, but they could still survive that."<p>

"Okay," Patrick said.

"So, aside from those creatures earlier, what do XANA's monsters look like?" No sooner than Sissi said this than Aelita zoomed in the other direction, being tailed by three yello wasp-like creatures. Aelita was wearing a sleeveless two-tone pink body suit with two pale purple stripes and a clear miniskirt and shoulderpads. She also had purple fingerless gloves that went midway past her shoulders, plus a pink star wristband, pink facepaint, and red earrings. She was riding a purple and magenta hoverboardthat had a whisker design on the front.

"Like that! Patrick, keep going! I'm going to help Aelita!" He turned the Overwing around, and headed back to help Aelita. The aforementioned pinkette was darting between trees to try and evade the Hornets, which worked for one of them (It crashed into a tree and exploded). She then turned around to face the two hornets, she held out her hand, and a pink ball of energy formed in it.

"Energy Field!" She shot the energy ball at a hornet, enveloping it in a pink light, before it exploded. The last hornet, however, shot at the Overboard, which was devirtualized. Aelita fell for a few seconds, before she passed her hand over her wrist. Two disconnected small pink wings formed above her back. She stopped falling, and began to climb back up into the air. The Hornet began to fire at Aelita. She prepared to fire back…

"Aelita, duck!" She quickly ducked, as Sissi's giant baton nearly knocked her out of the sky. The same couldn't be said about the Hornet, though; it crashed into a tree and was destroyed.

"Thanks," Aelita said.

"Don't mention it," William responded. "Where's Yumi?"

"She's at the way tower. There were some Bloks there." She landed on the Overwing. After she held onto Sissi's waist, William piloted the vehicle towards the way tower.

* * *

><p>"Let go of him, XANA!" Jeremie swung a piece of machinery that he found in the upper part of the factory at the Scyphozoa. Unfortunately, the creature was done with Odd, and as it dropped him, its tentacles wrapped around the part, and tossed it away.<p>

"Uh-oh. Umm…-GYUAK!" The Scyphozoa then took Jeremie hostage, and began to drain the red energy out of him as well.

* * *

><p>Saying that there only were a few of the dirty yellow cubes for Yumi to fight was an understatement. There were at least a dozen of them firing at her, who nimbly ducked and leapt out of the way of each blast. Yumi's attire on Lyoko consists of a black and bright red body suit with hot pink details, and shoulder pads with sakuras on them. She also has two strange purple pill-shaped objects above her eyebrows.<p>

"Damn Bloks…" she muttered, and took out her two Tessian Fans. "Eyah!" She threw them into the sea of Bloks, destroying two of them. A third Blok, however, spun around, and fired an ice blue laser at Yumi's feet, encasing them in ice.

"Of all the-!" she cursed, as she tried to yank herself free, but to no avail. A Blok prepared to fire at her.

"**Yumi!"** She turned and saw Patrick rushing at her on the Overbike. He jumped into the air, letting the Overbike crash into a Blok. He then proceeded to shoot energy blasts at the other Bloks. By the time William, Aelita, and Sissi arrived, there were no Bloks left to be found.

"Hey, you could have left some for me!" William joked. "I haven't killed any monsters since I was last here."

"Don't worry," Yumi said. "You'll have plenty of time to do that now."

"I'll head for the tower," Aelita said, before turning…to see it guarded by two new creatures. The monsters were about one and a half times her height, and looked like the rear of a lizard. The creatures had a white head, which had a red eye of XANA, and its sickly yellowish-green body were both lower than the top of its legs, and were connected by a vein-like structure. Their feet were grey, with one claw that extended out on both sides, and had the same vein-like pattern. They had a giant metal-plated tail, which had spikes on the top, and a pointed white blade on the bottom.

"Who're those dudes?" Patrick asked to no one in particular.

"I don't remember seeing those monsters with XANA before," William commented.

"XANA must have expanded his arsenal of monsters since we last fought," Yumi deducted.

"Jeremie, how many life points do they have?" Aelita asked. No response. "Jeremie? Are you there? Answer me!"

* * *

><p>"Wake up Jeremie! Come on!" The boy genius stirred at the mention of his name.<p>

"U-Ulrich!"

"The three of us got attacked by the Scyphozoa," Ulrich explained. "It doesn't seem like anything's wrong with us, though. It didn't drain our memories or put us under XANA's control."

"R-right." Jeremie got back into the chair. "Guys, how are things going?"

"_Jeremie!"_

"_There's this weird monster here that we would like some information on."_

"Hang on," he typed something into the computer, and a screen popped up. "It says that it has the same amount of Life Points as a Tarantula, but I don't see how it can attack you guys."

"_Try a giant bladed tail for on-WOAH!"_

"William!"

"_Or stomping the ground to create an earthquake."_

"Hang on. Ulrich is coming to-" He then noticed a monitor on the screen, which had a window open that monitored virtualization status. Normally, once an individual is devirtualized, he or she must wait about twelve hours before he or she can be revirtualized back onto Lyoko. Strangely, however, the counter by Odd's name read zero, which ment he was good to go. "Correction. Odd and Ulrich are coming to help you guys."

"_But didn't he just get devirtualized?"_ Yumi asked.

"I think it's a residue effect from being captured by the Scyphozoa, but he can return back to Lyoko now." He turned to the two, who nodded, and got into the elevator. When they reached the scanner room, however…

"Jeremie!" Ulrich yelled. "The Scyphozoa's in the middle of the scanner room!"

"_Ignore it. You two already got captured by it already, so it should leave you two alone." _True to Jeremie's word, Ulrich and Yumi reached the scanners with no problem at all. _"Transfer, Odd! Transfer, Ulrich! Scanner, Odd! Scanner, Ulrich! Virtualization!"_

Just after they transferred, the third scanner revved to life, as Sissi fell out. As she did, the Scyphozoa caught her in its tentacles, and began to collect her red energy.

* * *

><p>"Did I not just say to let it come to us?" William groaned, as he watched Sissi get devirtualized. The scorpion charged at the group. Its swung its tail at William, who barely managed to block it with his Zanbato. This was alleviated, however, by the monster stomping on the ground. The other scorpion charged the group, planning to run them over.<p>

"**Laser Arrow!"** A volley of arrows struck the creature in the Eye. It stumbled backwards, before exploding. The group turned around, and saw Odd and Ulrich. Odd wore a two-tone purple spandex cat suit, complete with ears, a tail, and claw gloves. A picture of a male dog peeing was on the center of his chest. He also has a silver belt and shoulder pads. Ulrich had a yellow and brown spandex body suit with a yellow headband. He also had two Katana swords on his back.

"It's a good thing that Odd Della Robia was able to save you from that nasty Scorpion," Odd boasted.

"Scorpion?" Ulrich asked quizzically.

"Yeah. They have a giant tail, so it's obviously a Scorpion, right?"

Ulrich looked at the remaining Scorpion. "If you say so…Triplicate!" The spandex samurai split into three bodies, and drew their swords. The three Ulrichs charged at the Scorpion, who swung its tail at them. This destroyed the copies, but not the real Ulrich.

"EYAH, IMPACT!" The katana drove deep into the Scorpion's Eye. It howled in pain as Ulrich pulled the sword out. After a few seconds, it exploded.

Ulrich turned to face the group, bowing. "Your tower awaits, milady."

"Okay," Aelita nodded, and raced into the tower.

"So, is that it?" Patrick asked.

"Not yet," Yumi said.

"Jeremie's got one last trick up his sleeve." Odd added.

Inside the tower, Aelita ran to the center of a platform that was shaped in the Eye of XANA. As she did, three rings of lights lit up on the platform. Aelita stood on the central light, and was levitated up to the top of the tower. When she did so, three rings f lights lit up as well. A panel appeared on the platform. Aelita placed her hand oo the panel. She then began to move information on the panel. "I'm all ready on my end, Jeremie."

"_Okay, I'm activating the tower for our own use."_

Outside, the others watched as the aura around the tower changed from white to green.

* * *

><p>Back in the scanner room, Sissi was almost drained of all of her red energy, when the Scyphozoa suddenly vanished. She fell to the floor, and gasped for air.<p>

"_Sissi! Are you okay? Is the Scyphozoa gone?"_

"Y-yeah…the squid's gone…"

"_Fantastic! I'll launch the Return to the Past program right away."_

"The return to the what?"

"_Return to the Past NOW!" _The scanner room was enveloped in a white light. Within seconds, that light grew to encompass the entire world.

* * *

><p>"W-wait! Weren't we just on Lyoko?"<p>

"And I was in the scanner thingamajigy!" The group was back by the vending machines, right before all the events of the entire chapter happened.

"That's the beauty of the Return to the Past program," Jeremie explained. "It reverses time so that we can relive the day as it would happen had XANA never attacked."

"HAH! CHECKMATE!"

"…As well as change the outcome of events."

"But only people who were scanned by the Supercalculator are able to remember the attack," Yumi said, "so don't go talking about events to anyone, especially the grown-ups."

"Why?" Sissi asked.

"_**Because if it falls into the hands of the government, all will be lost."**_

The group turned to the computer, and spotted the girl from before on the monitor.

"You!" Ulrich said.

"Chinese girl!" Odd stated.

"_Wrong, I'm Martian. Good job disabling the tower. But don't expect that it will be this easy next time. You did have Aelita with you, after all."_

"What do you mean, we had Aelita with us?" Jeremie demanded

"And what did you say about all being lost?" Patrick asked.

"_Lyoko was created to destroy Project Carthage, a top secret military program co-created by the American, British, French, and Japanese governments. If they find out that Schaeffer's, or in their case Hopper's, Supercomputer exists, they will have that factory under lock and key within minutes, and probably Kadic as well. And since the way governments function back in your time involves lots of debate and squabbling, no one will be able to fight XANA properly. Therefore, XANA will-"_

"Hey," Sissi interrupted, "is this speech going to be released on DVD or something?"

"Basically, if the Men in Black find out about XANA, the whole world is doomed."

"_Thank you Aelita. Tomorrow, I'm sending a data pack over the network to Carthage at 8:00 at night. It will tell you everything on how to recruit allies in the upcoming days. I've omitted the nature of XANA attacks, though; I've learned that the will of only a few people can't change the future to as they see fit. I'll see you all tomorrow, so-"_

"Wait!" Jeremie cut in. "Who are you?"

The girl paused, thinking deeply about what she should do. Finally, she looked back at the Lyoko Warriors.

"_You can call me Chao. Zaijian!"_ And with that, the transmission ended, leaving the Lyoko Warriors with far more questions than answers.

* * *

><p><em>For Your Information…<em>

_This chapter was supposed to be much longer, but a computer virus cut out any chance of working last week on this. Since I have several works backed up, I had to abbreviate this a bit. If I have the time, I'll add the missing parts in the future._

_Same thing goes for the character descriptions at the beginning. They all have their season 4 outfits on._

_Patrick's outfit is inspired by Noah from __**Code: Total Drama Reality**__._

_Those are actual coordinates of a tower in the Forest Sector._

_The official Code Lyoko-ne! Discussion topic is up and running on my forum. The link is on my profile. Check there also to keep notified on my updates._

_So yeah, I've pretty much set myself up for trouble releasing this now. If Kenny decides to have her return to help Ala Alba (Which HAS been heavily hinted at)…well, we'll cross that bridge if it exists. Anyway, prepare for a few surprises next chapter, so please review! And check out my other works as well!_

* * *

><p>Odd: We're going WHERE?<p>

Jeremie: Calm down, Odd. Don't spoil the entire chapter for the fans.

Aelita: Anyway, let's first get Chao's package in Sector 5. Maybe it can tell us how to get out of this mess.

?: Or it could lead to your downfall.

Patrick: Hey Odd, who's that girl? She reminds me somewhat of you.

Odd: Hey! You're-! But you were just-!

Jeremie: Odd, what did I just say about spoilers?

Next time! **Double Revelation Trouble**! See you then!


	2. Double Revelation Trouble

_It's nice to see that even in a month that's seen my other stories delayed by one issue after another, I can get at least one story updated on time. No one has bothered to translate the Season 1 title yet? Shame, since it's a spoiler for what is the main focus of the first 26 chapters._

From gwonbush: The Code Lyoko portion of this fic is so far very well done, with the character's voices shining through. As we are unsure when this takes place in Negima (although, so far it is hinted that it takes place during or after the current arc (don't we just love 5 week breaks?))and how Negima will interact with this story, I am currently unable to comment on how you handled that portion of the crossover. Keepup the good work.

From KKid: Thanks. It's going to be a challeng as I go on to produce a kinder Sissi, and, more importantly, a bigger personality for Patrick. This actually takes place just after the return from the Magic World. Judging from what's going on right now, it doesn't look like I'll be doing too much canon editing for the battle, but it's Akamatsu we're talking about, so who knows. Next chapter will have more interaction with Negima characters. Hope you enjoy this as it develops!

From Sun and Moon Entity: Ha-ha, thanks to you, I've got my Code Lyoko vibe back.

Oh my goodness, it's Chao. Wait, isn't she from the future. How is she contacting them now...hmm, probably through high tech technology.

By the way, shouldn't it be Ulrich and Odd stepping into the scanners. I thought hunk was already in Lyoko.

I'm impressed at all these stories you're juggling now. Don't strain yourself. Hope to see you next update.

-the SaME

From KKid: You're welcome. CL is probably one of the best animated shows that isn't produced in Japan. Hopefully, the faint signs of life will translate into a Season Five. You can't end CL with Aelita's mother missing, and Project Carthage relatively unexplained.

Chao provides her own explanation of that later in the chapter.

By reaching the scanners, I meant that the Scyphozoa did not take any action to Ulrich and Odd being sent to Lyoko.

It's running into the end of the school year, so I have more free time than the last few months. Five's the max I'll do (MoZ is currently on hiatus for awhile), using the 2-1 formula I described on my forum. Hope you like the chapter!

From Team-William-Luver: This was really good. I can't wait for the next chapter!

From KKid: Thanks!

From everyone else: (No review)

From KKid: Since I'm trailblazing here, I'm not expecting a lot of reviews until I'm a few chapters in. Still…shame on you all.

_Now we have the first trip into Sector 5, combined with the introduction of XANA's newest monsters…which, when you consider it, aren't really monsters at all. Plus, Chao decides to come clean about her knowledge of Lyoko, and all things related. Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

><p><p>

**Chapter 2: Double Revelation Trouble**

Scores of gigabytes of information whizzed before the all-knowing XANA. The multi-agent virus was scanning the statistics of the last battle, including the profiles of Sissi's and Patrick's Lyoko profiles, as he does after every confrontation with the warriors. Using this data, XANA then plans for the next attack. Currently, this called for a grand scheme to send the newest creation, 0100011 (or the Scorpion, as their one member dubbed it), into the real world to kill the Lyoko Warriors.

_All logistics completed. All situations accounted for. Contingency plans on standby. Commencing operation in 3…2…1._

Energy began to flow through the cables on Lyoko, until they centralized on a tower in the Mountain Sector. It was very isolated, with only one way in on foot, and a high wall surrounding it, precluding access by vehicles; the perfect location to stage his monsters to defend it.

Suddenly, a tower in the Ice Sector was activated, but not by XANA. The white aura around the tower changed to a yellow aura. In addition, a piece of data caught XANA's attention. Upon further inspection, it was determined that it was Kadec Academy security camera 12-D, which was located inside the principal's office. A computer monitor flashed on for a brief second, before it turned off. As soon as it did, the tower was deactivated.

XANA quickly changed the attack target to that computer. Rebooting it, the multi-agent virus looked over all the files, and discovered what the mysterious attack had done. The roster for the upcoming exchange program had been amended to include four new names: Odd Della Robia, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama, and Aelita Stones.

_Deactivating tower. Save attack for future use…deactivation complete…save complete._

XANA knew all too well which one of the Lyoko Warriors was the only one who could deactivate the towers. If Aelita was well out of the way, the remaining Warriors would be forced to remotely deactivate the towers, which involved destroying any and all monsters within the area, unless they wanted XANA to be able to retake the tower. They could, however, recruit more people to help fight. Therefore, XANA made a quick check through the roster of the people coming to Kadec, so as to prepare for any threats. For the most part, though, everyone checked out as being extraordinarily ordinary.

Four girls, however, drew a brief amount of attention. These four could not be any more different from each other. One was a dumb-as-a-doornail redhead who picked many fights with the class representative. Another was the bubbly, cheerful daughter of the school headmaster. Still another was a daughter of a teacher who was the star basketball player – on a team that regularly finished in the bottom tier of the standings. The last did very poorly on tests, but was regarded as one of the brightest minds in the school, and also volunteered at the school library.

Normally, these ordinary girls wouldn't be what would tick XANA's radar. It was their few connections to each other, however, that were interesting. One, they were all in the same class together. Also, they seemed to take a serious liking to their newest teacher, a ten-year-old prodigy fromWales. The biggest red flag, however, was that the four, along with most of their class, disappeared on a trip to Wales over this summer, reappearing a few weeks later in Mahora at the exact time of the second filming for the Martian Robot Army vs. Academy Defense Magical Knight Corps movie.

Without anything else on the net, however, XANA dismissed this as well, before activating a tower in the Desert Sector. This tower was, not coincidently, the same tower that Jeremie had kept data on the William polymorphic specter. After they had freed the real William, Jeremie had deactivated the tower, locking away the clone for good. That is, until XANA downloaded him from the tower database onto his supercomputer.

The William clone was materialized into the strange and terrifying replica that XANA called home. The multi-agent virus created a Scyphozoa, and directed it towards the clone, who was taking a look at the surrounding scenery…or lack thereof.

"W…where am I?" he wondered. "Wasn't I just with my parents?"

_The only parent you had was the one who banished you into oblivion. _The clone turned to face the Scyphozoa.

"XANA!"

_Yes._ The brain inside the Scyphozoa's head flashed red each time XANA spoke. _Do you know who you are?_

"I…m-my name is William. William Dunbar."

_No. You were a creation of Jeremie Belpois to act as a replacement for the real William Dunbar, who was under my control at the time. Once that control was disabled, and the real William was disabled, he shut down your program, banishing you into the depths of the Supercomputer to rot. Metaphorically speaking; data does not rot._

"So…I'm…?"

_Nothing more than a bunch of ones and zeroes, combined to cast the illusion of a person on Earth. You had the same appearance, memories, even voice of William. But to recall what one of your "friends" said, you are about as brilliant as their mascot dog, Kiwi. _The clone reflected on this.

"Then I am nobody, a shell that is discarded by all…"

_No. I have an interest in you. I was imprisoned by my creator, just like yourself. I have since escaped, but have since been pursued by your "father" and "friends." Alone, they will eventually win. It was only by a fluke chance that I managed to survive their lone attempt at my life, and once they realize that the multi-agent program didn't fail, they will modify it and use it again. But together, united, we can eliminate the warriors, and shape this tainted Earth into our own desires. _

"Why me?"

_Your father gave you free will. The real William was nothing but a mindless pawn, who had only the goals I gave him. You, however, can take initiative, realizing new goals and techniques that could help both of us. I give you the two choices: return to the tower and be jailed forever, or join me, as a comrade, and rule forever._

The clone pondered his two choices for a few seconds. "…I'll join you." The Scyphozoa began to move towards him. "…but…" The Scyphozoa stopped. "…you said that I am nothing but data."

_Yes._

"Then I wish not to be a shadow of someone. I want my own identity, one that is not the same as William, down to the gender."

_That can be arranged._ The Scyphozoa wrapped its tentacles around the clone, just like it did to its other victims. Unlike the other victims, instead of absorbing something from the clone, it injected something into it. Also, the clone was placed on the ground after the Scyphozoa was finished, rather than letting it drop to the ground.

The clone opened his – or rather her – pitch black eyes, and began to study her new appearance. She still had the jet black hair that William had, but it now was long, flowing down to her waist in a high ponytail. Her outfit consisted of a grey, black, and red full boy suit fifth black and red boots, spiked gauntlets, and black chest armor. She had William's Zanbato; but it had two chips at the end, and had long, black tendrils snaking up the sides. The Eye of XANA was on both her chest and the bottom of the sword.

"Not bad," she commented. "Not bad at all."

_You shall be Renee; the person reborn from the ashes of a shell. I ask you again. Will you join me in defeating the Lyoko Warriors, and ruling the Earth and the space that lies beyond? _This time, Renee didn't even hesitate.

"Yes, Master XANA."

_Good. Your first mission will be later today. The Lyoko Warriors will be receiving a Data Package at the data terminal in Carthage. You will lead a battalion to stop them, and intercept the Data Package. I am not sending you alone, however. _Five Tarantulas materialized behind the Scyphozoa, who turned to face them. _010001, the Tarantula. The closest of my creations to being human. _The Scyphozoa took control of the Tarantulas one by one, injecting something into them. Not long after the Scyphozoa was finished, the Tarantulas began to howl in agony, as their bodies shrunk, and began to take on more human appearances.

Renee watched this in both amazement and confusion. "Not to question your actions, Master XANA," she asked, "but what are you doing?"

_Creating your comrades._

* * *

><p><p>

**BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP! **Patrick and Jeremie woke up at the sound of Jeremie's computer constantly beeping in the middle of the night.

"You remembered to set it for Daylight Savings?" Patrick quipped groggily. "It's one in the morning." His cousin was a bit more attentive to the computer screen.

"The Superscan's picked up an activated tower!" he declared.

"What? Oh yeah, Lyoko." It seemed like the events of yesterday were but a dream of fantasy, but they were indeed real.

"Let's see…Mountain Sector, bearing 72 degrees south, 55 degr-huh?" A second tower was picked up. "Two towers?" he gasped.

"Looks like we got our hands full with XANA tonight," Patrick commented.

"Maybe not. Both towers just deactivated themselves."

"Meaning?"

"We can get some sleep for now. But be on your guard tomorrow. If past attacks are any indicator, XANA's planning something big." They both headed back to their beds. No sooner than their bodies hit the mattresses, however…

**BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!**

"Tell me how you were able to get some sleep with this thing." Patrick groaned, as Jeremie got up again to check the scan.

"Desert sector. Bearing - and it deactivated…"

"Great."

"I'll run a diagnostic scan on the program. For now, let's try to get some sleep. Ms. Hertz is giving a quiz on the study of nuclear physics tomorrow."

"Alright." The two finally were able to get some sleep.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

**BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BA-!**

Patrick threw his pillow at the computer, stopping the beeping for good. Or at least he hoped so.

* * *

><p><p>

"It's all very strange," Jeremie remarked at breakfast. "The last time XANA activated multiple towers, he did that all night, eventually being able to control the weather. After the third alert, however, that was it. XANA's been quiet ever since."

"You never know with XANA," Yumi reminded. "When has he ever made his plans completely obvious to us?"

"Not to change gears completely," William cut in, "but where's Odd and Sissi?"

"He's still sleeping," Ulrich said. "I would've woken him up, but he's trying to reduce the smell of his feet…"

"Not that smelly cream that Yolanda gave him again," Yumi groaned.

"And I saw Sissi heading to the principal's office just a few minutes ago," Patrick added.

"Anyway," Aelita said, trying to steer the conversation back to Lyoko, "didn't you say that there was an activated tower that wasn't XANA's?" Jeremie nodded.

"When I studied the activated towers from last night, one that didn't match XANA's signature. I wasn't able to do much in the way of studying it further, but I'll try to do an analysis on it when we go to the factory to pick up Chao's package."

"So you mean to say that we might be dealing with not one, but two enemies?" Ulrich asked.

"It's possible, but I haven't seen anything of significant worry in the news, so there's no reason to panic yet."

"**Guys! It's time to panic now!"** The five turned to see that Sissi had just entered the cafeteria. She was holding a piece of paper in her hands.

"Sissi, what's the matter?" William asked.

"This!" she said, placing the paper on the table. "You guys said that you never signed up for the Japanese exchange program, right?"

"Uh, I think so-" Jeremie looked at the sheet. It was a print-out of the roster foe everyone going on the exchange program. Sissi had highlighted four names:

Odd Della Robia

Ulrich Stern

Yumi Ishiyama

Aelita Stones

"Huh?" was the general reaction of the group.

"But I never signed up for this!" Yumi exclaimed.

"Neither did I," Aelita added.

"How did they get on the list?" Patrick asked.

"We don't know," the principal's daughter stated. "They just appeared on the roster overnight, so my father called me in to see if it was an accident. But all the money was in, and the permission forms were signed. In any case, you can't cancel now."

"Why?" Ulrich asked.

"If we cancel now," Jeremie deduced, "it would look suspicious. Principal Delmas might get Jim to watch us, and then we won't be able to access the factory as easily."

"And then XANA can just walk the Earth as he pleases," Patrick deduced.

"Well this is just great," Ulrich muttered. "First XANA comes back to the living, and now we're rendered unable to stop him."

"Yeah," Jeremie agreed. "This has all the trappings of XANA's work. I'll see if I can get us out of it while we pick up the Data Packet later tonight."

"Say," Sissi wondered. "Where's Odd? He has to know about this too!"

* * *

><p><p>

Said Della Robia was racing out of the dorms towards the cafeteria, bag in hand, in the hopes of getting at least a modest helping of breakfast before school started.

"Oh maaan!" he groaned. "Ulrich's supposed to make sure I get up! Especially since they're having cornmeal pancakes today!" He was so busy dreaming about eating that he didn't notice until it was too late that there was someone stepping into his way. "Wa-hey!"

"Huh? YA-!"

**!CRASH!** Odd bowled over the girl, knocking het to the ground, before hitting the dirt himself. A textbook landed on his back. Odd took the book from his back, and walked over to the girl.

"U-um, are you okay?" he cautiously asked her, offering the book back to her. The girl took it back.

"Ah, I think so. Nothing feels sore." The girl was about Odd's height – in fact, she was Odd's height. She had pretty blue eyes, a rather large chest, and long silky blonde hair that fell down to her knees. Two locks of hair that fell down to her chest were dyed purple. She wore a purple short-sleeved V-neck shirt that exposed some of her belly, a two-tone purple plaid skirt over pink pants, and dark red shoes.

"I'm sorry for running into you," Odd reiterated. "I was too busy focusing on breakfast."

"Well it is the morn- wait, food? Your name wouldn't happen to be Odd Della Robia, would it?"

"U-uh, yep, that's me! The one and only!"

"So you're the guy who is a hopeless romantic that gets girls to date him, and then ignores or two times them, right?"

"Ah, er…" Now Odd was nervous, as he was all too aware of his reputation among the girls. He braced himself for a slap in the face. "…Yes?"

"SCORE! " She made a small fist-pump, before…embracing him in a hug?

"I've always wanted to meet you, ever since I came over to Kadec!" Odd was confused.

"Huh?" The girl let go of him

"Oh, what was I thinking? I haven't introduced myself! My name's Claudette, and from this day forward, I'm your new girl-!"

**!RING!**

"Shoot! Gotta get to class! I hope to see you soon, my love!" She left Odd, leaving him very much confused.

"Uhhh….?" He did realize that he had missed breakfast. But for some strange reason, he was no longer hungry.

* * *

><p><p>

In English, however, that feeling was replaced by horror, and all because of the information he learned. And it didn't have anything to do with Walt Whitman or Lord Byron.

"The exchange program?" he whispered back to Jeremie.

"Shhh!" Patrick hissed. "Not so loud."

"Yes. I believe that XANA might be behind this, so we'll head to the factory after class today to check it out."

"And if it isn't XANA?" Sissi asked.

"Then we're in big trouble," Ulrich stated. "Aelita's the only one who can deactivate the towers. If she isn't here, XANA will have free reign to attack."

"We still have to get the Data Pack that that Chao person wants us to have," Jeremie reminded the group, "so we'll see what that has that could be of any use to us." Odd sighed.

"But really, Einstein, how can you trust someone that calls themselves a Martian?" he asked. Unfortunately, it was a little too loud.

"What's this about Martians, Odd?" the teacher, Ms. Kensington, demanded.

"Ah, um, Martians are, uh, going to attack us in about, uh, six or seven years?" he said sheepishly. This caused the entire class to laugh.

"Well, I suppose you find it funny," Ms. Kensington said, "but I don't! To the principal's office! Now!"

"Yes Ms. Kensington…" Odd groaned. He walked out of the classroom, worried that he wouldn't be able to help his friends if Mr. Delmas gave too much detention. As soon as the door closed to the classroom, however, his phone vibrated. Odd checked it to find a text message awaiting him:

Odd: Meet me at the Hermitage right now. I have something important to ask you involving you and me.

Claudette

Instantly, Odd's heart raced. _'A girl's actually contacted ME? Wow, she must really be head over heels for me.' _Instead of continuing to Mr. Delmas's office, he headed into the woods by the school, which was the easiest way to get to the Hermitage.

If Odd wasn't so hyped up about the potential of having a girlfriend, however, he would have found it strange that she would know about the Hermitage. Or that he never gave her his number.

* * *

><p><p>

The Hermitage was a decaying house near the far end of the forest that borderedKadecAcademy. Its last occupants were Franz and Aelita Hopper, a.k.a. Waldo and Aelita Schaffer, while Waldo was both teaching at Kadec and working on the Supercomputer in the abandoned Renault factory in the middle of theSeineRiveratBoulogne-Billancourt. This was until 1995, when Men in Black tried to take the two into custody, forcing them to take refuge in Lyoko. Since then, the Hermitage has sat abandoned, save for the Lyoko warriors' occasional visits to find information on Waldo.

Odd walked up to the building and found that the door was open slightly. Cautiously opening it, he crept slowly into the Hermitage. Papers and other trash littered the floor, reminding him that no one had lived there in a long time.

"Uh, is anybody here?" he called out. "Hello?"

"Odd, is that you?" Hearing Claudette made him feel much better.

"Yes! I'm at the entrance."

"Come up to the upper floors," she replied. Odd walked up to the second floor, finding Claudette sitting on the worn couch, gazing at a window in the room.

"This really is my favorite place to hang out," she commented. "Many times after school, my friends and I would come down here and do crazy things."

"S-so your school was close by here?" Odd asked. The blonde girl turned to face him.

"Yeah. you could say that. What about you? Did you ever come here?"

"Ah, a few times."

"You're lying," she said in a sing-song voice, while smirking. She motioned for him to sit next to her, which he did.

"Huh?"

"You can't lie to me. You've been here several times."

"H-how would you know?"

"Call it a girl's instinct, but I have you read like a book. For example, I can tell you are having a tough time resisting me." She ran her finger down his side, making Odd blush.

"Ah…"

"Please, do not resist," she implored, leaning in towards his face, "for this is the reason why I called you here. I cannot resist you either for much longer. I love you."

"I…I love you too." Odd leaned in to complete the kiss. It was passionate, like two lovers seeing each other for the first time in a long while. Alter several seconds, they parted. "W…wow." Claudette smiled. Too late, however, he realized it was a devilish smile.

"Sucker!" She kissed him a second time. When she did, electricity suddenly coursed through his body, electrocuting him. Odd's eyes widened as he saw a patch of her bangs change color from blonde to purple, in the shape of the Eye of XANA. It was the last thing he saw, however, as he finally succumbed to the excruciating pain of the electric shock, and collapsed, not even breathing..

"Actually," Claudette said, "the reason that I knew you were lying is that I am your twin. Oh well, it doesn't matter now, since you're dead now." She got up and walked out of the Hermitage.

If she looked back, she would have seen a yellow aura envelop Odd for a few seconds, followed by the shallow sounds of his breathing.

* * *

><p><p>

_"Hi! I'm Odd Della Robia! I can't pick up now, so please leave your name and message, and I'll get back to you."_

Odd's answering machine reverberating across the computer room was not what Jeremie was hoping to hear. After not seeing him after school, the gang checked his room, and found a note saying that he was on a date. But it was several hours later, and he was still nowhere to be found.

"We'll just have to go without him to Sector 5," Ulrich said. "Just wait until I get my hands on him for ditching us…"

"Could it be XANA?" Yumi asked. "He did this before on him just before he left the Supercomputer." Jeremie shook his head.

"No. The Superscan hasn't picked up any more activated towers since last night."

"Could XANA make it so that the Superscan was deactivated?" Patrick wondered. "Like a virus that's disguised as an antivirus program." His cousin pondered this.

"Hmm…I never thought of that. Let me check the program…"

**BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!**

"Oh no!" Jeremie gasped.

"What's wrong?" Sissi asked.

"I've been blocked out of the Superscan program!" Windows popped up, each containing red exclamation points. Then another window appeared, containing Chao.

_"It's XANA's doing!"_ she stated. "_There's an activated tower in Sector 5 that's sent one of his Commanders after you."_

"Commanders?" Jeremie wondered.

"You mean…like I was?" William asked.

_"Yes and no. He created these from scratch – save for one – using your DNA strands as a basis."_

"So that's what the Scyphozoa attacked only me, Odd, and Ulrich!" Jeremie suddenly stated. "XANA wanted more Commanders like William to command his forces. He had already scanned Aelita and Yumi in the past, and William's clone could be used as a medium for William's DNA. But who did he send?"

A video clip was shown from the Hermitage showing Odd meeting Claudette, kissing her, and then getting electrocuted. Claudette then got up and walked out of the Hermitage, towards the factory.

_"She's heading here. You have to hurry and download the Data Pack before she gets here!"_

"What about the tower?" William asked.

_"If she gets here before the Data Pack is downloaded, it won't matter how many towers you deactivate. The tower is a diversion so that XANA can get the data pack." _The window vanished.

"…" Aelita was still devastated by the fact that her father had sacrificed his life for nothing, and sulked in the far end of the room.

"Aelita," Jeremie said to her, "we're all suffering as much as you. But right now, we need you to help us on Lyoko. M-maybe the Data Pack will tell us that Franz Hopper's still out there on the-"

"You know very well that can't happen," she replied with no emotion, and walked into the elevator. "Well? Aren't we going to Lyoko?"

"Coming, coming…" Ulrich said, as the rest of them got into the elevator to head into the scanner room.

"Alright," Jeremie said into his headset. "It's off to Sector 5. Transfer, Ulrich! Transfer, Sissi! Transfer, William! Scanner, Ulrich! Scanner, Sissi! Scanner, William! Virtualization! Holosphere System, connect-huh? Watch out!"

* * *

><p><p>

Sissi, William, and Ulrich materialized inside of the Celestial Dome in Sector 5 – and were immediately attacked by a fan, an energy blast, and a laser.

"Ow!" Ulrich exclaimed.

"What's with the lousy welcome?" William asked to no one in particular.

**"Sorry for being bad hosts…"**

**"…but it's our first time meeting you guys…"**

**"…actually, you could call us your twins thay you've never met."**

"W-wah?" The three looked and saw three people standing right in front of where the exit of the Celestial Dome would appear. The first was a male who looked similar to Yumi in stature. His black eyes, Asian skin tone, and jet black hair signified that he was Japanese. A black and white headband was tied around his head, which had a red Eye of XANA on the front. He wore a red and black kimono under a yellow kimono jacket with white ends and black combat boots. On his waist were two holders containing red fans.

The second person was also a guy. He had short pink hair, faded red eyes, and elven ears. About Aelita's height in stature, he wore a faded red sleeveless jacket over a light tan top/pants that were tucked into red moccasins. A red leather band went around his waist. He had no apparent weapons. The Eye of XANA was inscribed in the palm of his hands.

The last person was perhaps the strangest out of the three. She seemed to be about Jeremie's height, and had blonde hair that reached to her waist in two braided pigtails. She had a sleeveless blue (near) full body suit that exposed her midriff. It was covered in a white circuit pattern. She also had dark blue fingerless gloves, a white star bracelet on her left shoulder, red shoulder and knee pads, and grey apparatuses on her head and heels. The Eye of XANA was the hub of the circuit pattern on the suit.

"And you are…" Ulrich asked.

"Shiro," the Japanese male said curtly.

"I'm Ancil," the second male introduced a little more politely.

"And lastly, my name is Erena," the girl stated. "We are XANA's commanders, created from the DNA of the original Lyoko Warriors." Sissi looked at the three.

"Okay," she commented, "even I can tell that those Shiro and Ancil guys are based off of Yumi and Aelita. But who's the basis of that tacky outfit that she's wearing?" This got Erena mad.

"Hey! This outfit isn't tacky! It's state-of-the-art! Right guys?"

"It's tacky," Shiro and Ancil answer simultaneously.

"Thanks for the support…" the blonde commander grumbled.

_"And you wonder why I never go to Lyoko. Transfer, Aelita! Transfer, Yumi! Transfer, Patrick! Scanner, Aelita! Scanner, Yumi! Scanner, Patrick! Virtualization!"_

The three were virtualized into the celestial dome, and quickly spotted the new commanders.

"So who are these guys?" Patrick asked. "More of XANA's monsters?"

"Actually," William answered, "those two are Yumi's and Aelita's twin, and the last one is Jeremie's."

"Okay," Yumi answered, before stopping to think about it. "…wait, what?"

"No more talking!" Shiro ordered, and threw his two fans at the Warriors, who quickly dodged.

"Split up!" Ulrich ordered, and broke away from the group. The others followed suit, forcing the commanders to choose who to go after. Shiro went after Sissi and Patrick, while William, Ulrich, and Yumi were chased by Ancil. Aelita tried to make a break for the exit, but was stopped by a laser blast that came out of Erena's headset.

"Sorry, but I'm under orders not to let you pas-OOMPH!" Aelita threw an Energy Field at her, knocking her down to the ground. The pinkette then waved her hand over her star bracelet, activating her wings. As she took off, Erena got back up. She waved her hand over her bracelet, and flames shot out of the bottom of the apparatuses on her heels. She lifted into the air, intercepting Aelita. Metal claw-like objects extended out of the blonde commander's knuckles, allowing her to rake the pinkette, whose wings disappeared as she fell back to the ground.

Erena stared down as a holographic screen appeared out of the grey machine on her head, and extended over her left eye. Apparently, it was a targeting system for her laser blasts. "I told you, you are not allowed to pass."

In another area of the Dome, Yumi, Ulrich, and William were busy dodging Shiro fans. Apparently, not only did he have two of them, but they were homing fans as well. So each time that they dodged the fans, they would spin right around and attack them from the rear, forcing them to deflect the attacks with their own weapons, or dodging them in such a way so that they could be stuck into the ground. This left them open to attack, as Shiro was also apparently well-versed in Pencak Silat.

"Any ideas?" Yumi asked, rubbing her cheek from being kicked in the face.

"I've got one," Ulrich said. "William, wait for the right moment." He raced up to Shiro, who braced for a sword attack. Instead, the spandex samurai stopped short, only a few feet from his enemy.

"Triangulate!" Ulrich began to run at a blinding rate of speed in a triangle pattern around Shiro. The three corners were anchored by images of Ulrich ready to strike at him. To the naked eye, it would be impossible for anyone to pick up his movements.

Shiro, however, merely closed his eyes. "Telekinesis." The black portion of his headband gave off a black aura. Suddenly, Ulrich's sword glowed black, and came out of his hilt. He was running too fast to stop, and was impaled by the blade of the sword, which impaled him, causing enough damage to devirtualize him.

"One down," he said, turning to Yumi, "two to go." He began to walk to her, preparing his fans, when he noticed something. "Where's the former puppet?"

**"Supersmoke!"** Shiro only had time to look behind him, as white smoke behind him formed into William, who wasted no time in devirtualizing him with his Zanbato.

"Right behind you," he said. The success that William had could not be said with Patrick and Sissi. Ancil was soundly defeating the two inexperienced Lyoko warriors, while taking very little damage. Patrick was a good shooter, but they were all deflected by Energy Field barriers. Finally, an energy shot deflected back at Patrick, devirtualizing him. Sissi charged at him attempting to whack Ancil with her extended baton…

"HY-YA-WHAH?"…but he simply grabbed the baton, and threw it at the wall, with Sissi still hanging on at the end. The weight of the Lyoko warrior, however, lowered the baton's trajectory, and it stabbed Erena, devirtualizing her, and clearing the pathway to the rest of Sector 5.

"Let's go!" Aelita called, running out into the hallway. Yumi and William followed shortly. Sissi tried to go as well, but was devirtualized by an Energy Field from Ancil. Before she did, however, she extended her baton, impaling and devirtualizing the twin of Aelita.

* * *

><p><p>

"Make a left at the first fork," Jeremie guided, "and be ready to ride the elevator. Watch out for Creepers, though."

_"Okay."_

"What are Creepers?" Patrick wondered.

"Think of a brown slug without a shell," Ulrich said. "Now imagine that it's a little bigger than you, has two arms, and fires lasers out of its mouth. It has the Eye on its head, so it's easier than you think to kill." Sissi looked like she was about to throw up.

"W-wouldn't it have been easier to say that when I wasn't able to vomit?" She said.

**BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!-BAP!**

"Uh-oh," Jeremie said, as a video camera of the factory appeared on the monitor. "We've got company." Claudette jumped down from the entrance level, and calmly walked over to the elevator.

"Talk about beauty being a beast," Patrick remarked. "She's gorgeous."

"And yet she put Odd out of commission," Ulrich reminded them.

"Regardless, it's not a good idea to have her down here," Jeremie said, as he quickly typed something into the computer. A diagram of the elevator appeared, with the elevator in white by the monitor room. It moved to the bottommost room of the shaft, and turned red.

"Elevator's locked. It'll buy us some time for them to deactivate the tower."

"How much time?" Sissi wondered nervously.

* * *

><p><p>

Yumi, Aelita, and William approached the elevator room. Unlike the elevator in the factory, this one encircled the Celestial Dome on a spindly-looking track on the outer wall. The elevator consisted of a simple platform and two white and blue cicular sides, matching the color scheme of Sector 5.

It wasn't a long wait for the elevator to arrive. However, it appeared that someone was riding it already. The person threw something at the three, who moved out of the way. Looking back, the object was a katana sword. Without warning, the person threw a second sword, striking and devirtualizing William.

"William!" Yumi gasped. The elevator slowed to a stop, as a short teen girl calmly walked off the platform. She was Ulrich's height, and had soft chestnut eyes, shoulder length brown hair, and a perfectly flat chest. Like Shiro, she had a headband; but hers was yellow, with a white Eye of Xana on the front. She wore a black full body suit under a yellow sleeveless samurai top, a brown thigh-length skirt, and brown moccasin-like shoes. Two brown samurai holders were on either side of her waist.

"…is it just me, or is XANA going retro on us?" Yumi wondered. "Who are you?"

"…Minette…" the commander answered softly, almost in a whisper, as she grabbed her two swords. "…I cannot let you pass…that would displease The Master…"

"Watch out," Aelita cautioned Yumi. "This is a clone of Ulrich, so she should know lots of martial arts." Minette stared hard at the pinkette.

"…I do not think of myself as a clone…rather…a superior replacement…Quadruplicate!" The brunette split herself into four different bodies, each who now stared down at the two girls.

"…If you can beat me…then you can pass…but that will be impossible…" the four clones charged forward.

* * *

><p><p>

Back at the factory, Claudette was pressing the button of the factory elevator. Though pressing probably isn't the best word that could be used to describe it. More like punching the button repeatedly like a five year old.

"Come on, you stupid little thing!" she yelled. Finally, she stopped. Placing her palm on the button, she closed her eyes, and released a small amount of electricity on the button. The grinding of gears could be heard sat the bottom, as the elevator quickly arrived at the top floor.

"That's more like it," she said, and walked in, pressing the down button.

* * *

><p><p>

"Uh, does that answer your question Sissi?" Patrick asked, as the elevator in the diagram moved to the top floor.

"Y-yes, but I hoped for it in hours, not minutes."

"Hold her off when she gets here," Jeremie ordered. "I still need to be here for the Data Pack. Hurry up, you two! Things are about to get messy in here."

* * *

><p><p>

"We're doing the best we can!"Yumi stated. Two of the clones had been eliminated, with the last two staring down at them from opposite directions. She and Aelita stood back to back, in between the two

"Ready?" the pinkette asked.

"Do we have much of a choice?"

"Not really." The two Minettes charged at the two, with both swords extended out to stab them. At the last second, Yumi grabbed Aelita's arm, who activated her wings and flew into the air. The Minettes weren't idiots, however. One went into a kneeling position, and was used by the other as a step stool to reach Yumi and Aelita. The Japanese Lyoko Warrior was prepared.

"HI-YAHH!" She fired a point-blank fan attack at the Minette, destroying the clone. She then released her hold on Aelita, and delivered a flying kick to the real Minette. The brunette commander was knocked a few feet away. As soon a she recovered, she saw an Energy Field strike her, devirtualizing her for good.

"Well that took a lot to defeat her," Yumi stated. "Jeremie, how many life points do we have left?"

_"You each have 20 Life points left. Hurry! The elevator door's opening!" _The two stepped on the elevator platform, which slowly began to rise up, towards the edge of Sector 5.

* * *

><p><p>

The door to the monitor room opened, revealing a very innocent looking Claudette.

"Ah, you must be Jeremie!" she said, playing dumb while trying to get his attention. "I've heard a lot about you from XANA, who wants you dead. But I don't really want that to happen. Because…the more I hear about you…the more…I want…you." She began to take off her shirt, making sure to make as much noise as possible. She finished taking it off, leaving her in just her skirt and a rather small black bra, and tossed it at Jeremie. The shirt landed a few feet away from the chair.

"I love you," she said. "Please, whisper those words into my ear ri-"

"Watch out! Two Creepers are waiting for you at the exit of the Celestial Dome."

_"Thanks for the heads up, Jeremie!" _Aelita replied. Claudette blinked in surprise.

"You…you don't love me?" she sniffed. "Even after…all the trouble…it took…to find…you?" She stepped out of the elevator, and put her hands behind her back, about to undo the bra strap…

**!WHACK!**

**!THUD!**

"Sorry, but we caught onto your acting career long before you even arrived!" Sissi stated. She and Patrick had been hidden to the side of the elevator, and tackled Claudette to the ground in an attempt to subdue her.

"Besides," Patrick added, "my cousin is both unofficially taken and busy at the moment. I can leave a message if you want."

"No thanks," the blonde commander said, "I'll just go directly to the SENDER!" She unleashed a large amount of electricity, shocking the two, and making them no longer of a threat. She turned to the boy genius, and began to walk to him, but was stopped by Ulrich, who jumped down from the rafters holding a metal pipe.

"So you're Odd's twin," he said, looking her over. "Funny, but you're definitely not scrawny."

"It's svelte," she corrected. "Now, can you kindly get out of the way? I have to make love with Einstein over there." This caught Ulrich off guard.

"Uh, d-did you say make-?" He brought the pipe up to block an electrically-infused punch by Claudette, which knocked it to the far side of the room. "…I'm guessing that was only to let my guard down."

* * *

><p><p>

Yumi and Aelita arrived at the edge of Sector 5. It was a platform out over an abyss of data. The walls of Sector 5 were covered in data files. Four cylinder tubes that appeared to be carrying more files extended out from the Celestial Dome to the walls. Aelita approached the end of the platform, and a data panel appeared. Files and graphs appeared on the panel, which she began to move back and forth, deleting irrelevant ones as soon as new ones appeared.

_"Hurry up, you guys!" _Jeremie panicked.

"Almost there!" Aelita called back. "At least we don't have any more of XANA's Commanders to worry about." Yumi remembered something,

"Wait, we only saw copies of me, you, Ohh, Jeremie, and Ulrich. Where's Will-YAUGH!"

"Ah! Yumi!" Aelita turned back to see her get devirtualized by a familiar looking sword.

"I don't even know why my real self even liked her," Renee commented, pulling her Zanbato out of the ground. "Good to see you again, Aelita. Don't you remember me? I'm Renee, the former clone of William that your boyfriend created."

"Ngh!" Aelita turned back to the panel and moved a few things, causing a bar on the screen to fill up completely. She then turned to create an Energy Field barrier to protect herself from being devirtualized by Renee. "Jeremie, the controls are yours, but I need an escape route!"

* * *

><p><p>

William used the side of the elevator as a support as it traveled up to the monitor room. He had never been devirtualized as a Lyoko Warrior, so the feeling of weakness was new to him. The elevator stopped, and the door opened.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be much help-GUWAH!" His apology was cut off, as Ulrich flew into him, knocking him to the back of the elevator. Claudette then shot an electric bolt at the up button, and the door closed, trapping the two inside.

"Alright. I'll send the Overwing," Jeremie said. He typed in a few commands, before turning to a task panel, which asked if he wanted to open, save, or cancel the downloaded file. He clicked Save, and within a few seconds, the Data Pack was saved.

"Yeah!" he cheered, before getting knocked out of the chair by an electric blast from Claudette.

"Now," she said slyly, "alone at last."

* * *

><p><p>

"Energy Field!" Aelita fired another blast at Renee, but it was deflected by the Zanbato. She had gotten a few hits on her, but they were few and far between. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Overwing materialize at the end of the platform. She turned to make a break for the hovercraft.

"No you don't! Supersmoke!" Renee disappeared into a black fog, which raced across the floor, and reformed her body in front of Aelita. The pinkette gasped, before a swing of the Zanbato devirtualized her.

"Too late to stop the download," she cursed. "But…" she eyed the Overwing. "…there's no one stopping me from destroying the Core…" She calmly walked over to the hovercraft. "I love it when my enemy gives me a backup pl-AUGH!"

She suddenly devirtualized when a giant fan sliced through her. Holding the fan was…

"Sorry," Chao said, "but it would be bad for the future if this world is destroyed again." Her red Chinese top with white lacing actually switched to black with yellow lacing partway down. The top was form fitting, and ended three-quarters of the way down her waist, exposing her belly. She had an extremely short red skirt over a white bikini bottom, with a white cloth tied around her waist like a belt. Rounding out her clothing were red fingerless gloves with white lacing and black ends, black thigh-height stockings with a red band at the top, and red, white, and black running shoes with yellow soles. Her weapons were two large grey fans, about three times the size of Yumi's.

Chao closed her fans, and placed them between her skirt and her cloth belt. "Jeremie? The download was a success. Jeremie?"

* * *

><p><p>

Claudette approached a terrified but paralyzed Jeremie, and sat down on his leg. She clasped the boy genius's shoulders. With a sly look of lust on her face, she slowly began to draw her face towards his lips, ready to kiss him…

Suddenly, she felt a tapping on her shoulder, and turned around. She was unexpectedly clocked in the face with a punch, sending her flying to the back wall.

"Sorry, Claudie, but after touching my lips, yours can't touch someone else's."

"Odd!" The blonde turned back to face Jeremie.

"The one and only! Sorry I was a bit late for the party."

"No! Behind you!" Odd turned around to where his friend was pointing to.

"Huh?" At the same time, Chao appeared on the monitor.

"Jeremie? The download was a success. Jeremie? Jere-?"

Odd whizzed by the Supercomputer and crashed into the back wall, electricity sparking from his body.

"…This is a bad time to chat, isn't it?" The window closed. Over on the far wall, Claudette leaned against the wall, her right arm extended and crackling with electricity. She saw Jeremie trying to escape to the ladder to the scanner room. With a swift arm motion, and another paralyzing electric blast, Jeremie collapsed once again, not knocked out, but immobile. His glasses clattered to the floor nearby.

"Sorry Einstein," she said, "but my brother interrupted all the fun before it even started. Now where were…we…?" Claudette approached him once again, and sat down on his leg. She clasped the boy genius's shoulders. With a sly look of lust on her face, she slowly began to draw her face towards his lips, ready to kiss him…

* * *

><p><p>

Chao got onto the Overwing and headed to the opposite side of Sector 5, where the lone tower was. As she approached the tower, a laser blast nearly hit her shoulder. She looked down and saw two Creepers on the platform by the tower. She took out her two fans, and held them in either hand. Maneuvering the Overwing to pass in between the two monsters, she let go of the handlebar, and held out her hands from her sides. The fans were large enough that they struck the Creepers in the Eye, destroying them instantly.

Taking control of the Overwing again, Chao made a vertical turnback loop, and parked right in front of the tower. She got off and entered the tower. Stopping at the center, she headed up to the top floor. When she reached the top floor, she placed her right hand on the panel.

CHAO_

CODE_

LYOKO

"Tower deactivated." Inside the tower, the flies on the side of the tower fell from their resting places on the wall to the bottom of the tower, disappearing from sight. Outside, the tower aura turned from red to yellow.

* * *

><p><p>

"AAARRGH!" Claudette suddenly gasped in pain, and disappeared in a black cloud of inky black miasma. Jeremie was stunned, but had enough composure to not show it after a few seconds. He searched for his glasses, finding them within a few seconds, and returned to his chair. By then, Odd, Sissi, and Patrick had regained conscience, William and Ulrich returned in the elevator, and Yumi and Aelita climbed the ladder from the scanner room. All now crowded around the monitor, as Chao once again appeared on the monitor.

"XANA deactivated the tower?" Jeremie asked in bewilderment.

_"No, I did."_

"You did?" Sissi asked.

_"Yes! That data pack you downloaded was loaded with more than just information. My own data was collected and saved directly onto the Supercomputer mainframe, and projected into this avatar."_ Aelita and Jeremie were amazed. The others…not as much.

"Not all of us are geniuses," Patrick remarked. "Do you have simpleton terms for that?"

"I think I do," Aelita said. "Chao's virtual form was scattered across the Digital Sea, just like…"

"Franz Hopper," Jeremie continued. "But the Data Pack collected all that scattered information into one file, which is now tethered to Lyoko."

_"Pretty much. Eventually, we may be able to end the Where's Waldo? question using a similar method."_

"'Where's Waldo?'" William repeated. "Isn't that some sort of game?" The veteran Warriors knew otherwise.

"Not just that," Yumi said. "Do you mean to say that-?"

_"Not here. We're not in a secure channel. Get me to a Waytower and I'll explain everything."_

"Alright," Jeremie agreed. "XANA probably won't take this sitting down, so make it fast. I'll open a tunnel for you."

_"Okay."_

* * *

><p><p>

Chao exited the tower, and walked over to the Overwing. As she got on, someone else walked out of the tower. She wore a purple tank top and purple pants with black stripes and padded yellow kneepads. The tank top had a yellow circle, which contained a black Eye of XANA. She had yellow shoes, two-tone purple cat gloves that extended just above her elbows, and a log two-tone purple tale. It was her purple highlights, long blonde hair, and large bust, however, that gave away her identity.

"Oh man," Claudette groaned, holding her head with her hand. "Why didn't I just try to kiss him from the start? XANA gave me electricity powers as well! And a killer kiss, too! If it wasn't for-!" She spotted Chao. "You."

"Uh…hi?"

"More like goodbye! Laser Arrow!" She aimed her arm at Chao and fired a volley of arrows at her. Fortunately, Chao ducked out of the way, and began to fly off across the edge of Sector 5.

"Mantas!" A terrible screech heralded the arrival of a black-finned, white back manta ray that had the Eye of XANA on its back. Flanking it on either side were two more, blue-finned Mantas. The black Manta pulled alongside the platform and allowed Claudette to get on. She picked up a set of reigns attached to the Manta, and coaxed it to rejoin the other two, who were starting to fire on Chao. Now, not only was one pissed off XANA Commander trying to attack her, but so were three Mantas. Lasers flew over her shoulder, and almost clipped her hair.

"Uh, Jeremie? Some cooperation please, before I get roasted here!"

_"There's backup waiting for you once you get out of the tunnel. Speaking of which, it's open…now!"_

One of the four tubes began to break up into data files, disappearing as they zoomed into the tunnel. Dodging laser fire, Chao flew into the tunnel, with Claudette and the Mantas following close behind.

The tunnel led to the Desert Sector, which was primarily comprised of sand-colored pathways and reddish-brown rocks. Cables extended out of Sector 5 and towards the many towers of the sector, the closest of which was clearly visible from the tunnel entrance. Before Chao could reach the tower, however, she had to cross a long stretch of open sea, with no platforms to land on in case of an emergency. Like if a Manta's laser blast struck the Overwing.

Chao had dodged a Laser Arrow volley and ran right into the laser blast. She tried to reach land, but the nearest platform was still a long way off. She hung onto the handle bars once the rider platform disappeared, but even that didn't last long. She yelped when they did, as she began to fall towards theDigitalSea…

**"YAAAA-HOOO!"**

**!THUD!**

Chao landed on the Overboard, and looked up at Odd.

"Lucky Einstein loaded the Overboard when he did," he said. "Otherwise, you'd be digital toast!"

"You don't have to remind me…" Chao said.

"Okay then, Chao. Hang on tight!" Odd turned the Overboard around, and piloted it towards the Manta squad, which also turned around to face them.

"Laser Arrow!" Odd fired a series of arrows at the squad, destroying the two support Mantas. He then pulled another U-turn to pace Claudette.

"Long time no see, brother," the clone spat out.

"Hey, if you want to copy me, you can't have a ride like that."

"At least my ride has a weapon!"

"But mine's much more maneuverable, especially when I'm carrying two people."

"Huh?" Claudette noticed that Chao wasn't on the Overboard anymore. She spun around in time to be kicked in the gut. She fell off the Manta into theDigitalSea. Chao then sliced the Manta, jumping back onto the Overboard before it exploded.

_"Nice work guys. Head on over to the Tower and we'll be done." _Odd brought the Overboard onto land, and pulled it up next to the tower. Chao got off and walked into the tower. Jeremie rematerialized Odd, then secured a private channel activating the tower.

* * *

><p><p>

"Let's start off at the beginning," Jeremie said to Chao. "How do you know about Lyoko?"

_"Martians have a lot more knowledge than you think, Jeremie."_

"Enough with this extraterrestrial stuff and get to the facts please."

_"I'm not lying. Would it help you if I said how I got stuck into the Digital Sea?"_

"Yes, please," Aelita asked.

_"Okay then. First of all, that movie in Mahora isn't a movie."_ A chorus of gasps filled the room.

"That's where I recognized you from!" Odd declared, uploading a picture on his phone. It had a picture of her and a young red-headed boy fighting against each other on a blimp.

"Well whaddya know," Ulrich remarked.

"You saying that all of that was real?" William asked. Chao nodded.

_"No CGI, unlike my "co-star" once said. I wasn't attacking the academy, though. I was buying time to reach a goal."_

"What kind of goal?" Patrick asked.

_"Un monde sans danger, as you would call it. Sorry, but I can't really say anything else. In the line of business that I work in, the walls have ears. And so do computers. Anyway, I failed, and went back to my, "home," only to find that XANA had completely taken it over, along with the entire planet. So I-"_

"Wait," Sissi interrupted, "XANA took control of the entire world?" She turned to the veteran Lyoko warriors. "Lemmie guess. You guys went and fixed it, didn't you?"

"This is news to us," Odd said. Jeremie coughed.

"Read between the lines, Sissi. It could mean just that everyone that is close to her were taken over by XANA. Though, it seems that you're afraid someone else is listening into the conversation, am I right?"

_"No to the first, but yes to the second. I'll get back to that later. Anyway, I tried to return to Mahora once I found this out, but at the last moment, XANA got me, and took me prisoner, before throwing me into the Digital Sea, scattering my data across the World Wide Web. If it wasn't for someone you know very well, Aelita, I'd be dead."_

"W-what?" the pinkette gasped. Jeremie was surprised as well.

"Y-you don't mean…that the person who saved you was…"

_"Yes Jeremie. Franz Hopper." _The room grew so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

"Who's Franz Hopper?" Sissi asked.

"William?" Patrick looked at the eleventh grader.

"Name doesn't ring a bell," he replied. Yumi decided to explain.

"Franz Hopper is the government alias of Waldo Schafer, the creator of the supercomputer…and Aelita's real father."

"What?" Sissi yelped. "So I was right when I had suspicions on Aelita "Stones." You better give the three of us the rundown when we get back."

"Will do." Aelita began to tear up.

"No, that can't be true! My father died before my own eyes!"

_"You can ask him yourself once we are able to bring him back. Anyway, he saved my subconscious, allowing me to be able to gain enough data to be able to contact you."_

"If he saved you," Odd reasoned, "then you should know where he is on the network, right?" Chao suddenly looked downcast.

_"Unfortunately, he is in XANA's clutches right now, trapped in the replica that was created for him to reside in. That was the price to pay for my freedom. Before he was captured, however, he told me that your powers alone wouldn't be able to stop XANA. We would have to gather a much larger force in order to wipe XANA out for good."_

"We have to trust more people with the secret of Lyoko?" Ulrich groaned. "Wouldn't it be best if we had only us getting rid of him?"

_"That's where the Exchange Program comes in."_

"Eh?"

_"By manipulating the replica towers, I was able to convince Mr. Delmas and Dean Konoe to start an exchange program, making it appealing for a certain group of people to join it." _Four pictures appeared on the screen. Neither the Lyoko Warriors nor Chao knew it, but XANA had looked at the same pictures earlier.

_"From left to right: Asuna Kagurazaka, Konoka Konoe, Yuna Akashi, Yue Ayase. Along with most of their class, they already share a rather big secret, one that not only is the same one that I hold and cannot talk about, but also which will come in handy fighting XANA. However, Franz Hopper said that Mahora was in danger as well, so last night, I added your names onto the list as well."_

"So the reason we're going to japan," Aelita asked, "Is all because of a warning from my father?"

_"I can't decide for you who will help you, but at least consider the offer of help." _The group thought about the offer. Jeremie looked at all of them, then turned back to face Chao.

"Alright," he said. "But we'll have to evaluate your friends before they can join us."

_"That's acceptable." _Sissi yawned.

"We better get back to school," she commented. "It's getting pretty late."

"Yeah," Ulrich commented. "We can't save the world if Jim gives us all four hours of detention."

"Okay," Jeremie said to Chao. "I'll contact you after school tomorrow."

"Wait," Odd interrupted. "Why not materialize her here on earth? She already told us that she's human."

_"Martian!"_

"Unfortunately, Code Earth was only designed specifically for Aelita. It will take me a while to modify the program for Chao."

_"Don't worry about that. For now, we have to reprogram the Skid, so that we can not only fight XANA on his territory, and rescue Hopper."_

"Right."

"I can't believe that there's a chance that my father might still be alive," Aelita said, smiling. Inwardly, Chao smiled, knowing that the same person who inavertedly allowed XANA to live was the same one who gave them a chance to defeat him without losing one of their own.

* * *

><p><p>

"We apologize for our performance, Master XANA," Renee said to the Scyphozoa, kneeling at it along with the rest of the commanders. "We failed in intercepting the Data Pack, and it came back to bite us."

_To win you must lose. It was your first time in combat, and I expected this to happen. The enemy will be reduced in numbers starting tomorrow. Once they are out of the Return Window, we will strike again. It concerns me little that the new enemy is able to deactivate the towers. Without a devirtualization entry for her, she is no different from my sister back in the early stages of the war. _Some of the commanders became puzzled.

"…your…sister…?" Minette asked.

_Metaphorically speaking. Whether by his hands or by his…love…we were both created by Franz Hopper. Renee, Erena, Ancil, Shiro. Pick out your monster squadron that you will command for the next attack. Minette and Claudette will guard the tower from the new enemy._

"Understood!"

* * *

><p><p>

The next day was when the Exchange students would leave forJapan. Sissi, Patrick, and William were there to send the veteran Warriors off, but someone was missing…

"Where's Jeremie?" Aelita asked. "Shouldn't he be with you guys?"

"He was up all night on the computer," Patrick said. "He said that he'd come a bit-"

"Over here, Einstein!" Odd called, seeing the blonde genius coming over to them.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologized, "but I was busy last night working on an upgrade to our Lyoko cards."

"Another upgrade?" Yumi wondered.

"Yeah. I call it RosettaSpirit. Basically, whenever someone speaks, those sound waves are picked up by the eardrums, which simplify the incoming air pressure waves into a single channel of amplitude. The inner ear performs an approximation of a Fourier transform on this wave to deliver to the brain a set of frequencies present in the sound. This is how language is able to be present, as certain waves cause certain channels. The RosettaSpirit upgrade now interprets those upgrades, and instantly corrects them to-"

"Please, Jeremie," Ulrich implored, "in English."

"That's all you'll hear, because RosettaSpirit translates what you speak and hear into a universal frequency that everyone can understand, unless they actually mean that word. I put it on all of our profiles."

"Sweet!" Odd exclaimed. "Now I can speak Japanese!"

"That won't help in writing it, though," Aelita remarked.

"Remember to keep a lookout for any of Chao's classmates," Jeremie reminded them. "She did put you four on this trip to guard Mahora from XANA, so it would help for you to have allies."

"Just make sure not to look it, okay?" William said, "Enjoy the journey rather than dread it."

"Okay," Yumi said.

"So I guess this where we all say goodbye?" Sissi asked.

"Only for a year," Ulrich stated. "And knowing XANA, he'll make us cross paths much sooner than later." The group all said their goodbyes and good lucks, along with hugs, handshakes, or the like. Aelita gave Jeremie a kiss on the cheek, making him blush. Then the four Lyoko veterans got into the coach bus, which then left for the airport.

"So," Patrick remarked, "we're left to defend the home front?"

"Looks like it," Jeremie stated. "But Kadec definitely won't be the site of the final battle."

"And where will that be?" Sissi asked.

"I don't know. It all depends on where we find XANA's replica, and when he strikes. Or, where Chao's friends possibly aid us."

"Do you really think that will happen?" William wondered.

"Chao helped me in designing the RosettaSpirit upgrade, and with debugging the Superscan. After we were done, she said that we had to do two things when we recruit the first of her friends. One was to mention her name. The other was to ask about the current whereabouts of a Non-Government-Organization member who went missing ten years ago inIstanbul."

"Who was it?" Sissi asked. Jeremie turned to face her.

"Nagi Springfield of Ala Rubia."

* * *

><p><p>

_For Your Information…_

_Odd wasn't far off in his estimation on a Martian attack. Just ask Zazie's sister._

_The idea for commanders of XANA isn't a new one on FFN, but I gave it a slight spin by basing their weapons, attacks, and even personalities on what their "siblings" wore in seasons 1-3._

_More credits: Erena's outfit is based off of fanart by Jeremie Belpois on Code Lyoko Roleplay. The title said not to laugh, but even Ulrich said that his outfit was ridiculous, so this fits the space between that and useful._

_Some personalities were fused with others to create extremes. Odd's was fused with Haruna's to create a very outgoing and cunning Claudette. Similarly, Minette's very quiet nature was brought upon by the addition of Tabitha from Familiar of Zero, and a hint of Asuna was sprinkled onto Jeremie to produce Erena._

_If anyone wants to look, the French meanings of the Commander's names relate to the character they are based on._

_The Claudette scene is currently what I believe to b the riskiest scene in all of my teen writings. Considering what I deal in, however, it probably won't be the last._

_Chao's Lyoko form is based on her Armor Card Pactio as seen in Negima? Episode 22._

_No CL fic, in my not-always-right opinion, is complete without a reference to its awesome theme song. Well, awesome in French, at least (stupid cheesy American dubbing…)_

_What was Chao thinking back to?_

_Easter egg alert! Will anyone actually bother to find it this time?_

_RosettaSpirit is a reference to both Rosetta Stone translators, and Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2, verses 5-11._

_The answer to the second question will depend on what transcribes in the manga._

_A revised C1 is up. It includes character apperances for the Lyoko Warriors._

_So much has happened this chapter. The Commanders of XANA were created. Chao became a valuable asset. The prospect of four new warriors emerges. Most importantly, Franz Hopper was revealed to be not dead. How will this all affect the fight against XANA? And what of the attack that never was? Only way to find out is to stay tuned, so please review, as I like to get feedback on how I'm doing! And take a peek at my other works as well!_

* * *

><p><p>

Asuna: I seeLondon, I seeFrance…

Yue: We saw London over the summer, Baka Red.

Chamo: An' remember that we came on this trip to train far away from the craziness of Mahora!

Asuna: I see…some strange mechanical bug?

Yuna: Eh?

Renee: Go, minions of XANAi! Kill the Lyoko Warriors, and all who stand in our way!

Konoka: XANA? Lyoko? Are those-?

William: No, they're not rock bands.

Yuna: That aside, it would be bad if someone dies here, right?

Yue: Obviously.

Asuna: Not if we have something to say about it!

Next time! **The White Wings of Kadec**! See you then!


	3. The White Wings of Kadec

_Originally, I was intending to see the chapter right to the end of the XANA attack. But as I was going through this, I found that I had nearly 14k words written! Plus, the bit inside Lyoko was not coming to me, as I'm drained of any thought process for the story. So I cut off the last 5k words, and split the chapter into two parts. You'll see what was originally meant for this chapter next time CL-ne! comes around in the rotation._

From Team-William-Luver: I really liked this chapter. The evil 'twin' idea was creepy, yet very interesting. Please update soon!

From KKid: I actually got this particular idea from Lord Maximus and his Code: Total, Drama, Reality; but I've also seen this used in many other works. Much later, and I mean MUCH later, you'll see me take the Commander idea to a place I believe no one's ever touched.

From everybody else: (no review)

From KKid: Hey, hey, hey! What happened to gwon and SaME?-! For everyone else, shame on you all.

_So now, after two chapters of waiting, we finally meet the four girls from Ala Alba (and one that's not) that will play a heavy role throughout the story here in France. As well as a bit of dry XANA monster humor. Enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: The White Wings of Kadec<strong>

A coach bus pulled up to the gates of Kadec Academy. The driver opened the doors, and a stream of Japanese students poured out, wearing various clothing and carrying different colored bags. Waiting for them was the P.E. teacher for Kadec Academy, Jim Morales. He was a chunky guy that had brown hair, brown eyes, and bushy eyebrows. He wore a white sweatband on his forehead, a dark red sweater jacket that had the Kadec Shield logo embroidered on the left chest side, and tan sweatpants, along with red and white track sneakers.

"Alright kids!" he yelled to the group of teens, gaining their attention. "Huanying, and welcome to Kadec Academy in suburban Paris, France! Please make your way over to the gymnasium to receive your schedules and dorm room numbers. Don't dawdle!"

"Excuse me sir, but the correct greeting is 'Konichiwa.' 'Huanying' is Chinese." Jim turned around to face a short, purple haired girl. She wore a plain black short sleeved shirt, black shorts, black thigh-length stockings, and faded pink shoes with lacing that went halfway up her thigh. Her purple hair, which fell to the back of her knees, was tied into two long cowtails with white ribbon, and her purple eyes seemed to express no emotion at all. A black knapsack was slung around her shoulder, and hanged near her thigh.

"Really?" Jim asked, surprised. "Again with the language mix-up…I'm very sorry, miss…?"

"Ayase. Yue Ayase," she stated. There seemed to be almost no emotion in her voice.

"Well, Miss Ayase, thank you for correcting that mistake for me, and I hope that you have a wonderful time here at Kadec Academy." Jim bowed, before walking towards the main administration building.

"So this is Kadec Academy…" Yue turned around to see three other girls walk up to her. The one who had spoken to her had thigh-length bright orange hair that was tied into pigtails with bells attached to red ribbon. She wore a blue denim jacket over a white dress shirt, a faded purple skirt, and brown felt boots that reached the bottom of her knees. She carried a white book bag on her shoulders. Curiously, she had heterochromia – that is, her left eye was blue, but her right eye was a sea green color.

"Definitely nothing at all like Mahora, eh Asuna?" Another girl asked. She had short black hair that barely reached to her shoulders, since most of it was in a side ponytail. The brown-eyed girl wore pink sleeveless zippered top over a black tank top, with grey camouflaged cargo pants and grey sneakers, along with a nondescript red Mahora Academy book bag. Her most notable aspect, however, were her, er, assets, which completely dwarfed the shorter and very much flat-chested Yue.

"Of course!" the redhead replied. "You don't see a giant tree anywhere around here, do you?"

"I don't think that was what Yuna meant," Yue stated, sweatdropping.

"I think what Asuna is trying to say is that she's a little homesick," the third girl suggested. She had brown eyes and brown hair that reached her waist. She wore a pink long-sleeved shirt, a blue skirt, and leather boots that went halfway up her lower leg. A leather bag was slung across her left shoulder. She was shorter than Asuna and Yuna, but taller than Yue.

"Eh?-!" Asuna gasped. "Konoka, what would make you think that I would want to have to go through one of Evangeline's lessons from hell?"

"I didn't say that," the brunette giggled. "Don't tell me that you don't miss Professor Takahata or Negi. I was having trouble sleeping on the plane ride knowing that I wouldn't see Set-chan for a whole year." The mood in the area suddenly seemed to get more somber.

"W-well, of course I do!" she stammered. "And who wouldn't, after what we all have gone through since Negi arrived."

"Er, I didn't mean it like that…" Konoka assued.

"**Hey! Don't forget why we came here in the first place!"** The Brooklyn accented voice came from a snow white ermine that now scooted out of Yue's bag. "Big Brother sent us so that we could get proper training, away from the crazy influences of Mahora."

"Remind me why we had to do this, Chamo," Asuna asked the creature.

"Look what we had to go through since Big Bro arrived. Evangeline, the Kansai Magic Association, Graf Herrman, Chao Lingshen, Cosmo Entelecheia…Face it, Big Bro's a magnet for trouble! While all of that quickly raised your power levels real fast, at least one of your lives was put in danger. And considering that Bro absolutely hates putting those he cares about in constant danger…"

"But couldn't Negi just defeat anyone single-handedly now?" Yuna asked.

"That's not the point! Bro won't be able to ensure your safety all the time! And since you three are all budding mages, he wanted us to train far enough away from his possible adversaries."

"Seriously," Asuna muttered, "that brat doesn't know that we can take care of ourselves…"

"That reminds me, Asuna," Konoka said to the redhead. "You don't have magical capabilities, so why are you here?"

"Negi wanted to have someone here that could ensure that you guys wouldn't be harmed from any rogue mages that come through the area. Plus, Setsuna didn't want Chamo unsupervised with you." Said ermine didn't seem too happy with that information.

"Negi appoints me to train people in magic," he laments, "and yet not everyone trusts me nearly as much."

"Probably because you haven't given us reason to give our votes of confidence," she reasoned.

"Moving off that, Yuecchi, did you find a place that we could train at in relative secretness?" Yue nodded.

"There's an abandoned factory not far from here." she said. "There's a manhole cover in the forest that joins a sewer that empties out near the factory. We can head there tonight." Just then, Jim reappeared from the offices, and spotted the four still loitering by the bus.

"Hey you four!" he hollered. "Get moving, or I'll have to give each of you a detention!"

"Sorry!" Yuna yelled back. "Just a problem with our bags!" Chamo hid back into Yue's bag.

"Remember, there are no known mages at Kadec," he warned, "so no magic unless necessary. I don't want the Parisian Magic Association on our tail, since that gets Big Bro in trouble as well."

"You have our word," Asuna assured. "Besides, with Negi still in Japan, how much trouble could actually happen?"

* * *

><p>"Sigh." Herb Pichon stared across the cafeteria tables during lunch. At every table, there seemed there were at least two Japanese girls that had come from the faraway school in Japan, chatting vigorously with the local students. Every table, that his, except his. He brushed his neatly combed black hair out of his hazel eyes, and adjusted his round glasses to focus at another table across the room.<p>

"Hey Herb," a voice asked. "Do you want to go do something that is both breathtaking and-?"

"No, I don't want to go fishing again!" he groaned. The voice belonged to the only other person currently sitting at his table, Nicholas Poliakoff, who could very well be the polar opposite of Herb. Whereas Herb dressed to succeed in his yellow collared shirt with a red tie and a blue vest, khaki pants, and brown loafers, Nicholas, with his shoulder-length blonde hair, was a wannabe jock, wearing a red opened jacket over a grey long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and white sneakers. His light blue eyes seemed to give off the impression of a flickering light bulb – you see some spark of life and intelligence at one point, then the next, it's all a pile of mush.

"What's the matter, Herb?" the blonde boy asked.

"It's been two months now," Herb said, "and you still don't get it, you dimwit? When we were with Sissi, we were cool, we were talked about, and most importantly, we had friends!"

"I thought Sissi only counted as one person?" Nicholas wondered, earning a glare from his friend.

"Shut up! That kind of attitude got us where we are now: lifeless, geeky jerks that have nothing better to do than stalk Sissi, while everyone else gets as many friends as they can imagine!" He pounded his fist on the table. "And to think, I actually like the girl, and this is how she treats us…"

"Speaking of Sissi, look what her new gang's set their eyes on."

"Huh? What do you-?" Nicholas pointed to the Lyoko Warrior's table. Normally, they would be chatting like everyone else in the room. Today, though, all four were discreetly watching a nearby table. Sitting at the table were four exchange students – Asuna, Konoka, Yue, and Yuna.

Herb turned to that table, and saw the same thing. "That's really weird," he remarked. "They haven't been doing that since William started acting normal. I wonder what they're doing…"

"Don't look at me," Nicholas said. "I'm about as knowledgeable in this department as a rock."

"**Then how about asking someone who knows a bit about who they're targeting?"** The two teens turned to the side of their table. Standing at their table was a rather pretty transfer student, who had flowing knee-length black hair, brown eyes, and perhaps the cutest face that either of the two boys had ever laid their eyes upon, even more so than Sissi. Her cherry red tank top and blue skinnyjeans gripped to her moderate chest, curvy hips, and superb figure, concealed only by a grey cloth jacket. Finishing her attire were black sneakers, a red knapsack, and a pink headband with a fake flower attached on the right side.

Herb was suddenly both attracted and confused at the same time. "E-excuse me?"

"The only way you're going to find out why they're after them," the girl explained, "is to find out what might make them attractable. It's obvious that they've seen another one of that class's strange behavior."

"S-strange…Behavior…?" Nicholas asked.

"Mahora Academy Middle School Class 3-A. Your equivalent of a ninth grade class, except that they've been taught by ten-year-old boy from Wales since New Year's. And ever since then, strange things have been happening to our school. Vampire incidents, Martians versus Mahora Mage Order, the missing Club Negima…and it's all because of those students! And I intend to find out why!" Herb shook his head, still blushing in her presence.

"That's fine and all, but we're only mildly interested in what's happening…"

"But you ARE interested in that Sissi girl, aren't you?" she pointed out. Herb blushed wildly.

"Gah…!"

"Wow, you're good!" Nicholas remarked. The girl brushed her hair back with her hand.

"What else would you expect from the Mahora Paparazzi's number one understudy? Just by how you reacted to my question tells me that you're still in love with her. My advice, however, is to move on and get another girl. You've been after her, for what, two, no, three years now?"

"Ah-uh-yes!" Herb answered.

"But has she ever seen interest in you?" she asked. "Even after all your advances on her?" Both boys rattled their brains to try and find an instance that contradicted her question, but they came up empty.

"N-no…" they both replied.

"I figured as much. That Sissi girl strikes me as impossible-to-get. She'll date you for a while, but then dump you in the mud with the swine. Types like her can only be countered with what they hurl, a good dose of mud. I can help you with that."

"And why would you want to help us in doing that?" Herb asked.

"You're the brains of this duo," she said impressively to him, "meaning your friend here is the brawns. Add my charm and charisma, and you have the minimum three things necessary to have a successful clique that can act autonomously and without any assistance needed. Plus, I want to get to the bottom of the mystery of class 3-A."

Herb looked at Nicholas, then the Lyoko Warriors, then the four mysterious girls, before returning to the girl. "So, what is so interesting about those four, miss…?"

"Sakura," she replied, taking out four photos. "Sakura Mokoshima, of Saint Ursula Girl's High School 1-F of Mahora Academy. Well, the small cute girl with the long black hair is Konoka Konoe, the granddaughter of the dean at Mahora. She's actually a rich girl from Kyoto, who came to the Kanto region for unknown reasons. Also unknown is the reason for a bright girl like her going for extra help virtually every other day. Every time I tried to approach her to ask about that, either her bodyguard Setsuna Sakurazaki threatens to slit my throat, or Paparazzi comes and states that she gave exclusive rights to interview her only.

"The other black haired girl with the massive assets is Yuna Akashi, the star member of our middle school girls' varsity basketball team – and our only star. While any guy would swoon over her, but for some reason, she has her eyes set on her widowed father, who's a teacher at Mahora. She secretly likes guns and war machinery.

"The girl with the big forehead and purple hair is Yue Ayase. Along with friends Haruna Saotome and Nodoka Miyazaki, she forms the Library Exploration Trio."

"What's so special about a library that it needs to be explored?" Nicholas interjected.

"If you've ever seen our library, you'd know. Anyway, she's incredibly brilliant, but because she hates to study, she is part of the 'Baka Rangers,' who are the five people with the lowest averages in 3-A. Like Konoka, she participates in after-class tudoring with their professor." Sakura paused. "Finally, there's the enigma…"

"Uh, the enigma?" Nicholas asked.

"You mean that redhead?" Herb asked. Sakura nodded.

"Asuna Kagurazaka. Out of all the students in 3-A, only Evangeline McDowel is more mysterious. She transferred into their class several years ago, is a Baka Ranger and stays for extra help like Yue, and at least had a serious attraction to Professor Takahata. But aside from that, I have nothing. No birth certificate, no relatives, nadda, zip, zilch. It's as if she had come from a different planet or something…"

"Hey Herb," Nicholas said to his speckled friend. "That sounds a lot like Aelita. Minus the dumb part and teacher relationship thingie." Now it was Sakura's turn to ask questions.

"Who's Aelita?" she asked.

"A student who transferred in from Canada supposedly." Herb replied. Sakura seemed to be interested in this information.

"Supposedly?"

"She hangs out with Jeremie and his crew. EVERY day. Except for their ringleader, they went on the exchange program. They always talk about strange things like quantum physics and such, which is strange considering that only Mr. and Mrs. Einstein can understand. Plus this one time when Nicholas dragged me to fish by the abandoned factory on the river, we saw them running into the factory. We tried to follow, but all we saw were Aelita and Odd making out. Plus, we were a bit scared of dark and creepy places-"

"You were the one that was scared to the bone," Nicholas corrected, "not I." Sakura took all of this information down onto a notepad.

"Mh-hmm…So we have a mysterious group of students drawing interest abroad from another mysterious group of students. Definitely a scoop that I'm interested in. And your knowledge of your adversaries is very impressive, Herb. I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful relationship." Herb blushed again.

"R-really?-!" The raven-haired reporter laughed.

"Not like that!" she said. "But I do give all boys a chance at me, so maybe you could win me over."

Herb became so lost in his own little world that he had to have Nicholas repeat to him later in the day how they were going to humiliate Sissi.

* * *

><p>"Okay," Jeremie announced. "That's enough work for today. We have a test in on the hypotenuse of triangles tomorrow, and I promised Sissi that I'd help her with studying for it." He was in the factory, working with Chao on reconstructing the Skid.<p>

"_Alright. I'll stay here and work on some more improvements. Do you want me to activate a tower and take the test for her?"_ It was tempting, but…

"Eh, ah, no; she should be able to do well on what I teach her. Besides, I think she's been possessed enough by XANA in the past, don't you think?"

"_Okay! By the way, did my friends come over to Kadec?"_

"Yes. We haven't seen anything unusual about them yet, but considering that you're being so secretive on why you want them on Lyoko, we're willing to wait as long as it takes for them to reveal themselves."

"_You mean you didn't even take a vote on them yet?"_ Jeremie shook his head.

"No, we did. But it was voted 6-2 against them. Aelita and I were the only ones who voted for them. We could use the extra manpower, after all."

"_And why Aelita? Wasn't she nearly burned when William first went to Lyoko?"_

"The more people working to help XANA, the sooner she can see her father again. I haven't seen her so happy since before XANA resurfaced."

"_It's good to hear that she's back to her old self this quickly; I imagined that she would have begun to deny my facts by now. Well, see you tomorrow!"_

"Bye!" Chao's window disappeared. Jeremie got out of his chair and headed for the elevator. Just as he was about to press the up button…

**BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP! BAP!**

"Huh?-!" The boy genius ran back to the controls as a video feed from the factory entrance. Four figures were walking on the bridge, towards the factory. Jeremie quickly locked the elevator at the bottom of the shaft, before climbing the ladder on the side wall that led to a corridor near one of the production rooms. If they were puppets of XANA, he'd have to call up Patrick, Sissi, and William. If they weren't…

* * *

><p>"Ile Seguin is an island in the middle of the Seine River," Yue explained. "Between 1929 and 1934, the Renault car company constructed an automobile factory on the island, with production continuing until 1992. Currently, there are projects in planning to demolish the factory and replace it with condominiums, an arts complex, businesses…a lot of good ideas, which are all currently strangled by government red tape. We shouldn't be bothered here." The four were walking on the side walkway of a series of underground sewers that led towards the factory. On the opposite side of the sewer, the squeak of a rat was shortly accompanied by the sound of scampering feet on the concrete ground.<p>

"Yue," Yuna wondered, "why did we have to go through a sewer to get to this place you're talking about?"

"If you'd like to be rung up by that Jim fellow, then be my guest," Asuna stated. "If you remember, we aren't supposed to be up this late."

"It was a good thing that there was an access through the boiler room by the staircase," Yue continued. "Otherwise, we'd have to run across the courtyard to reach a manhole in the nearby woods. Here we are." The four reached the end of the sewer, where it empties out into the Seine River. The end of the sewer was sealed off with heavy metal bars, making the nearest exit a metal ladder that led to a manhole. An island obscured he location of the river's opposite bank.

"Up here." Yue began to climb the ladder, followed by Yuna, Konoka, and Asuna. The purplette removed the manhole cover, pulled herself out, and turned back to help the other three out. The road that they were on led to a bridge that spanned the waterway to connect with the island. At the end of the bridge stood a massive, derelict factory complex that encompassed the entirety of the island. From their position, they could look into the entranceway, and quickly spotted four ropes hanging from a steel I-beam. Chamo popped out of Yue's bag, and surveyed the scene before them.

"Woah momma!" the ermine exclaimed. "T-this place is huge!"

"That's why I thought it would be a perfect place to train," the purplette stated.

"But why would they leave such a big factory sitting here rotting away?" Yuna wondered. Yue sweatdropped.

"Pay attention next time," she flatly recommended.

"Forget that," Asuna urged. "If we're going to use this place as a training base, we've got to at least know what's inside!" Before anyone else spoke, she ran across the bridge into the complex, grabbed a rope, jumped off the ledge, and slid down to the pavement below, landing feet first.

"Hey, wait up!" Yuna exclaimed, and ran to catch up with her. Yue and Konoka simply walked after the two.

"Good to see Asuna still as lively as usual," Yue commented.

"It's actually the best that I've seen we defeated Cosmo Ethletica," Konoka stated. "She was still in a depressed state whenever she returned to our dorms. It's almost as if she wanted to leave the Academy." Yue took mental note of this as they reached the ropes. The purplette was first, and she grasped the rope and slid to the ground floor, with Konoka following shortly afterwards.

"Yes…hmmm…" Chamo commented, taking in the surroundings. The place was empty, save for the silent shadows of the building and one empty elevator shaft. "…the area is secluded enough…as long as we don't destroy anything, it should be a perfect place to train!" Konoka noticed the shaft.

"Say, where does that lead to…" she wondered.

"Only one way to find out!" Asuna stated, walking over to the down button. She firmly pressed the button, and waited for the sound of the elevator rising up to their level. After a few seconds of hearing nothing, she pressed it again. And again, and again, and again…

"Come on, you stupid thing!" she yelled, pounding the button with her fist.

"Must be out of order," Yuna guessed.

"Maybe we should climb down the shaft," Konoka suggested, pointing to the side of the shaft. "Look, there's a rung ladder on the side of the shaft." Chamo yawned, and shook his head.

"It's getting late," the ermine stated. "We can do that tomorrow, when the jet lag's worn off."

"I guess you're right," she yawned. "Ah, now I'm starting to get tired, too."

"Let's stay awake long enough to search the rest of the place," Yue urged. "We can do a quick look around the place now. A thorough search of the place can wait until tomorrow after school."

"Sounds good!" Yuna stated. "Oh man, doesn't this place remind you guys of somewhere that a mad scientist would set up shop?"

"You've been hanging out with Hakase recently, haven't you?" Asuna asked, as the group headed deeper and deeper into the factory complex.

'_You're not too far off,'_ Jeremie thought, as he watched them leave from behind a support column. As soon as he believed that they were far enough away, the boy genius hastily hurried up the nearby loading ramp, and back out onto street level. Once on the bridge, he took out his cell phone, and dialed up a number.

"Patrick, it's me. We have a bit of a problem."

* * *

><p>"They're taking up residence in the factory?" William asked Jeremie at breakfast the next day. He was across the table from both him and Patrick, with Sissi sitting next to him.<p>

"Yeah. I didn't catch their entire conversation, but they want to use the factory as some sort of training ground. They were talking with a man that I think was their leader, but I didn't see him."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Sissi wondered. "If Chao stated that those for would be helpful to us, wouldn't this just confirm what she said?"

"It depends on what they are training," Patrick told her, "and if it's legal or not."

"It's not like that we have a chummy relation with the law either," she grumbled.

"We can argue the legality of our actions later," Jeremie urged. "But if they attract too much attention, that would put the spotlight on us as well. Remember, we still aren't fully committed to approach them and bring them to Lyoko. And tonight, they are going to search the factory, and find the Supercomputer. We need to make a decision by then; otherwise, the Return to the Past won't be able to go back far enough that we can lead them away from the factory."

"We'll have to keep an eye on them," William suggested. "All day. If we even show a shred of capability for turning tail, we Return and lead them away." Jeremie nodded.

"That sounds like the only course of action for now," he said. "Any objections?"

"What about our classes?" Sissi asked. "If I fail this geometry test, my father will chew my head off!"

"Besides," Patrick added, "We're tenth and eleventh graders. They are ninth graders. It would look rather suspicious if we were wandering near their classes."

"If we screw this up," the boy genius stated coldly, "then you might never see your father again." The objections were shocked into silence by his statement. "We have four people here, and four people to monitor. Therefore, we can easily divide our work into spying on a one-on-one basis. William, you'll take…" What they didn't know was that they themselves were being spied on, as a snow white animal. Chamo quickly scampered back to the table where the four girls were sitting at. He quickly whispered his information to Yue. Her eyes went wide for a moment, before returning to their emotionless state.

"Well?" Yuna asked.

"The blonde boy spotted us at the factory. He doesn't know that we are mages yet, but they are going to be tailing us." Konoka grew concerned.

"Do you think we're in trouble with the Magic Association?" she whispered.

"Nah," Asuna countered. "Yue said that they didn't explicitly state that we had magic. Anything else?" Yue nodded.

"Chao."

"Eh?"

"It could have been someone else named Chao," the purplette explained, "but they did say that a Chao person had told them that we would be helpful to their cause."

"And you think it's our Chao Lingshen?" Yuna asked.

"When you put it together with the last bit of information…"

"What's that?" Konoka asked.

"They mentioned something about bringing us to a place called Lyoko, and that there is a Supercomputer underneath the factory that we were in. They also mentioned something called Return to the Past, but even I have no clue what that could be."

"So we're not the only ones who are hiding something," Yuna stated.

"And it looks like we may have to confront them very soon," Yue added. "As early as tonight."

"What are we going to do? If we have a confrontation, we'll most likely have to explain our – hey, look at Sakura." Sakura, Herb, and Nicholas passed by them, their trays heavily laden with bowls of cereal.

"What's Kasumi's stalker doing with that much food?" Asuna wondered. "It's not like she can eat all of that by herself."

"Maybe she's trying to fill out the rest of her body," Yuna joked. Sakura and her two new friends headed over towards the Lyoko Warriors table, and as they neared, Sakura appeared to trip over her own feet. The tray became unstable, and the bowls on her tray flew into the air, spilling cold, sticky cereal all over Sissi and Jeremie. His laptop was also hit with food and milk; it sparked briefly, before the screen flashed, then went completely blank, the soft hum of the hard drive completely gone.

"AH?-!" he exclaimed. "No! My laptop!"

"Oh, oops," Sakura apologized obnoxiously. "A casualty of war, I guess." This set off warning bells at both tables.

"What?" William asked.

"Casualty of war?" Yue wondered. Herb stepped out from behind Sakura.

"Yes. For the last few years, I've hanged out with you, put up with your insults, obeyed your every command, all so that I could get a chance to work up my courage to ask you out. Only to see you join forces with the weirdoes here and declare that you never liked neither me or Nicholas!" Sissi brushed the last of the sticky cereal off her clothing.

"Duh," she said flatly. "Back when I was a brat, you were useful minions that would lick a pig if I ordered it. But now that I've changed, I realized not only how badly I treated you, but how badly I used such mistreatment to hurt those that I now realize to be my friends, who you originally hated in the first place." Herb went red in the face, this time not from love.

"That just makes it worse!" he yelled, and angrily threw his tray at her. She fell backwards, and was once again covered in wet, sticky cereal.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?-!" William demanded.

"Doing that to the person you loved-!"

"FORMELY loved, Einstein cousin!" Herb spat. While this was going on, Jeremie helped Sissi up off the ground. Nicholas approached the two, still holding his tray in his hands.

"I suppose you also want to give Sissi a milk bath?" the boy genius asked. The blonde shook his head.

"No. This is the cereal that we were planning to eat."

* * *

><p>Over in the Mountain Sector, at the tower that was protected by high walls, pulsations ripped through the lonely path that connected the plateau. The tower changed colors, from its normal white to a bright red.<p>

* * *

><p>By the time Jim arrived to the cafeteria, Asuna had already stopped the two forces from going into an all-out brawl. She was now talking to Sakura.<p>

"What the hell did you think you'd accomplish pulling of a stunt like that?-!" she demanded.

"Why is it that you're accusing me of anything," she asked innocently. "Don't you know that it's bad to wrongly accuse those older than you?"

"Don't play dumb with me! It was that attitude that got you cut off the Mahora newspaper this year, so don't take it out on the students here!"

"Hey, it was only because they promoted Kasumi to main photographer after you guys returned from Wales! Which reminds me, this is the perfect time to ask you four where your class ran off to when you visited Wales over the summer!"

"Not that crap again! If you think you're going to force that-!"

"Ladies, ladies!" Jim boomed. "You don't want me sending the both of you back to Japan because someone has an unanswered question, now do you?-!"

"N-no sir…" they both replied, before looking in opposite directions.

"Good." He turned to Herb, Patrick, and William. "As for you guys, you should know better than to try to solve your differences by fighting! That only worked for me in the Gulf War, when an Iraqi soldier accused me of cheating on his wife."

"Really," Patrick whistled. "How'd it go?"

"It was a tough fight, as we did a standard boxing match, and…I'd rather not talk about it. Anyway, four hours of detention for William and Patrick. Herb, you'll go see the principal immediately to receive your punishment!" Herb gulped.

"**I'm afraid that no one here will able to serve their punishments." **The eyes in the cafeteria that were formerly glued onto Jim and Sissi now moved to focus onto a girl who had just walked into the cafeteria.

"Eh?" Konoka exclaimed.

"Not serve?" Sakura repeated.

"Why not?" Jim demanded. "And I don't believe that I recognize your face from any of the students here!"

"Because either one of two possibilities will now occur," the girl stated. "Either Master XANA will take over the world, or you'll all return to your catfights and boxing matches, not realizing that I exist. Except for four people here, of course." This statement, coupled with her long blonde hair and strange blue skintight outfit, caused William to realize who this girl was.

"Erena!" he exclaimed.

"Good morning, Lyoko Warriors," she greeted with a smile and wave. "I hope you got enough sleep last night, because you're gonna need it today. Kankrelats, attack!" Suddenly, dozens, perhaps hundreds of the small little creatures appeared in the cafeteria, causing panic to erupt in the students. This was only reinforced when the monsters began firing lasers.

"Time to go!" William said.

"Second that!" Sissy yelled, as the four quickly ran towards the doors to the cafeteria. Jim turned towards them just as they opened the doors.

"Hey!" he boomed. "Where do you guys think you're goin'?-!"

"Somewhere to take the latter option!" Jeremie replied, as they flew through the doors, and out of the cafeteria. A Kankrelat tried to follow, but the door closed just as it tried to get through, knocking the machine onto its side.

"What the-?-!" Before Jim could finish, Erena came up from behind him, and shot a laser blast at him. The close range of the blast gave the laser devastating power, as the P.E. teacher quickly lost consciousness, and collapsed in a messy heap by a table, a hole seared in his back.

"Not as lethal as Claudette's XANA-fied kisses," she remarked, "but it still packs quite a punch. Kankrelats, move out!" The Kankrelats hopped onto the lunch tables, and jumped out towards the windows – of which there were no equivalents on Lyoko. Not realizing that they were there, the first two sets of Kankrelats that jumped simply smacked into the windows, and fell onto the ground in various positions. At least four were disappeared when the landed on utensils that stabbed them in the eyes. The others, who stopped their jumps towards the outside, first began to look at each other, then Erena, for advice. This got the XANA commander steamed.

"You stupid machines!" she yelled. "You fire at the windows, THEN jump out of them!" The Kankrelats did just that, their laser blasts being enough to shatter the windows. They were now able to get through to the outside.

Erena facepalmed. "Why did I get stuck with the idiot monsters?" She hadn't noticed that during her frustration at her subordinates, four people had quietly slipped out of the cafeteria.

* * *

><p>Back with the Lyoko Warriors, who were now making a mad dash for the boiler room…<p>

"Aw nuts!" Sissi complained, removing one last cereal flake from her soggy shirt. "Why did XANA have to attack us after I went through that?-!"

"Look on the bright side, Sissi!" William offered. "Not only can we now prepare for today's confrontation, but you can now get some more studying in!"

"Now's not the time for jokes, William!" Jeremie stated. "If my laptop hadn't fried, we could have at least gotten a head start to the factory! Now we have to worry about running into-!" He stopped when he opened the door to the boiler room. Blocking the way was Shiro, who was commanding a group of…Bloks.

"Anyone else find anything fitting about what XANA's blocking our way with?" Patrick said to no one in particular.

"…Sorry…" Shiro quietly apologized, "…but you must not pass…" Patrick noticed a pipe lying nearby.

"You guys turn around," he said, picking up the pipe. "I'll keep her from following you back."

"Are you crazy?-!" Sissi yelped. "Those lasers will fry you to a crisp if you get hit!"

"I'll be fine," he assured. "Besides, I've got a bit of a score to settle with this girl."

"All right," Jeremie said. "But be careful."

"Don't worry. I don't think I'll fall for XANA twice!" The other three left the boiler room, leaving Patrick to deal with the XANA commander.

"A score with me?" Ancil asked.

"Yeah," Patrick answered, tapping the pipe in the palm of his hand. "You devirtualize my back, I revirtualize yours. Fair enough?"

"I believe so."

* * *

><p>"Do you think that he'll stand a chance against Minette?" Patrick asked.<p>

"As long as those Bloks don't freeze him," Jeremie surmised, "then he'll be fine. Otherwise, we'll have to step up the pace on Lyoko!"

"Uh, that might be a little hard now," Sissi stated. "Look!" Ahead of them, blocking their path to the manhole entrance, were Renee and Shiro. The former was commanding three Scorpions, while the latter had five Tarantulas.

"Going somewhere?" Renee asked, smirking.

"Yeah," William stated. "Not just this way!" Risking being hit in the back, they turned around, hoping to make a break for the main road. However, they found that their path had been sealed up by Kankrelats, who formed a semicircle to trap them. Erena walked up behind them.

"How is it that I'm second in command," she complained, "yet I get stuck with the dumbest of our minions?-!"

"Luck of the draw," Renee replied. "It was your idea to draw virtual straws anyway."

"Only because you two both wanted the Scorpions," Shiro muttered.

"Anyway," the raven haired commander stated, "it seems that you guys are a little…shorthanded today. What happened to my friends? Did they go away or something?"

"You know very well where they are, don't you?" Jeremie said.

"Shut up, Father! Honestly, I don't know why XANA wants to hold you guys prisoner. You're only going to be obnoxious, and belligerent to us anyway, so what's the point of trying to make you guys mere pawns anyway? It would be much better if you all were dead." She paused. "What do you two think?"

"Stick to Master XANA's orders," Shiro insisted. "I'm getting a strange feeling from some of the students here…and it's not coming from those three." Jeremie took note of this.

"I felt something too," Erena remarked. "It was a strong, oppressive presence. But with the chaos I caused in that cafeteria place, I wasn't able to find out where it was coming from." Renee turned to glare at her, and whacked her off her feet with the flat part of her zanbato.

"IDIOT!" she screamed. "That presence might be detrimental to Master XANA's plans! You're supposed to be second in command after me, and my mother if you go by your coding! Yet you're making simple boneheaded mistakes like this?-!"

"A-ah! Sorry, Renee! I'm sorry!"

_Considering that Erena's code was created from Jeremie's DNA,' _Shiro mused to himself, _'shouldn't she be the one who's scolding? Not her child? Why did Master XANA make things so-?' _ He was interrupted by the soft chatter of the Lyoko Warriors, who were conferring on what they just heard.

"Could it be our-?" William began.

"It has to be," Jeremie cut in. "With what little information Chao's told us, it would make some sense."

"What makes sense?" Shiro butted in, holding one of his fans towards Jeremie's neck. "Speak up!"

"What's up Shiro?" Renee asked, confused at what he was doing.

"Your Father was discussing something that the Data Pack sent him." Renee walked away from Erena, and right up in Jeremie's face.

"So, Father," she cooed, running her finger up his chin, "tell me what's so important that it can't wait for later, hmm?" Jeremie simply spat in her face, causing her to retract in shock.

"I would never tell an ally of XANA anything!" he declared. The raven haired commander wiped the spit off her face, and reached for her sword.

"Ugh!" She yelled. "I wonder if this is how the monster first felt about Dr. Frankenstein! Screw the democracy thing! YOU DIE!" She began to swing her sword, hell-bent on decapitating Jeremie. The boy genius closed his eyes, just as everything began to move at once.

"JEREMIE!"

"NO!"

"What in the-?-!"

"Renee, STOP!"

**!TING-LING!**

"**ADEAT!"**

**!KLANG!**

Jeremie slowly opened his eyes. He knew very well that metal slicing through human flesh did not make a "klang" noise. They instantly went wide-eyed when he saw what had happened: another Zanbato had blocked Renee's. Different from both William's and Renee's, the sharpened edges of the blade were silver, with the rest of the metal being blackened metal. The hilt was also moved to the top of the sword, rather than the middle, and the handle was wrapped in white bandages. An orange-brown tag was attached to the end of the hilt, and it appeared that both it and the blade had writing inscribed on them.

Most surprising, however, was who was holding the sword. The person was a girl, wearing chest armor over a black spandex shirt, a red knee-length skirt, and knee-high armor boots over black thigh-length stockings. On her right side, the shirt continued into fingerless gloves, and was covered partially by metal wrist armor and a metal shoulder pad. Her left side, however, was sleeveless and exposed, save for white bandages that covered her arm and part of her shoulder. But it were the golden bells in her hair that made Jeremie realize who she was.

"Though I did say that this place wouldn't be anything like Mahora," Asuna stated, "that doesn't mean that I don't like to have a good fight against bad guys!"

"Asuna!" Jeremie exclaimed.

"Eh?" Said girl turned her head towards him, confused. "Do I know you?"

"Er, sort of." The XANA commanders were in a state of shock.

"W-wasn't she holding a card just before?-!" Erena asked. "S-she did not just change that card into a sword!"

"She's giving off that oppressive aura!" Shiro declared. "The sword must have something to do with it! I know it's impossible, but this could be categorized under that human term for unexplained human phenomena…"

"…Magic…" Renee finished, perhaps the most surprised out of the three. "…no way…" Asuna turned her head around. Behind her were Konoka and Yue, as well as a few less Kankrelats than before.

"Hey Yue!" she called over. "I could use a little help here!"

"Coming," the purplette replied, and produced a card out of her pocket. It was too far off for Jeremie to get a good look at it.

"Adeat!" No sooner than Yue said this, than she became bathed in a bright white light, her hair being blown upward by a mysterious force. The bright light flashed, and all of a sudden, books started spiraling from the ground, circling the girl. A witch's hat fell onto her head, as she outstretched her arms so that a black cloak could be magically put on her. She grasped a broom in her right hand, as her left reached out and selected one of the books from the spiral. The others disappeared, and the book levitated by itself, hovering close to the girl's left hand.

"…Okay, so it IS that magic whateveryacalledit!" Erena realized. "Kankrelats! Fire!" The yellow monsters turned towards Yue, and began charging their lasers. The girl appeared to be unphased by the impending attack.

"For Zo Cratica Socraticaia…VENTE!" Yue made a circle motion around herself with her broom. Instantly, a strong gust of wind kicked up, and sent the lightweight Kankrelats flying in every direction. As they did, and before they were smashed by crashing into something, their lasers fired, and everyone ducked to try to avoid being hit. In total, every Kankrelat, two Scorpions, and two Tarantulas were destroyed when everything was said and done. Sissi also got hit by a laser, and crumpled to the ground, clutching her burnt in severe agony.

"Sissi!" William cried.

"Ah! I'm coming!" Konoka hurried over, and pulled out a card from her pocket. "Adeat!" This time, the blinding light was so close that everyone had to cover their eyes to protect them. When they were able to see again, they saw that Konoka was now in a white and red laced priestess garb, with purple bottoms and brown shoes. Two yellow fans with red tassels were held in her hands. She walked up to Sissi, took out a small heart-shaped wand, and pointed it at Sissi's wound.

"Practe Bigi Nar! Let the grace of Jupiter be the cure for your sake! Cura!" A bright light formed around the wound. Sissi cringed, as the skin around the wound began to miraculously heal. Within seconds, there was no sign of there ever being a burn mark there.

"…M-my arm…!" Sissi exclaimed, shocked at having a first-hand experience of magic. "Y-you…"

"Don't worry about it!" Konoka assured, giving off her trademark smile.

"N-ngh!" Erena groaned, just getting off the ground. "This has been a disaster on too many levels!"

"I agree," Renee stated. "It's time to change plans. Erena, head over and assist Ancil. Me and Shiro will move to destroy the Supercomputer."

"Right!" The three commanders dispersed, with Erena running over towards the boiler room, and Renee and Shiro hopping onto a Scorpion and a Tarantula, respectively, and turning around, headed into the forest.

"Wait," William realized, "Patrick's still in the boiler room!"

"No worries, bro!" a male voice came from around Yue. "Yuna's over there, so I'd expect her to have found him by now." A long, furry, white creature popped out of her pocket.

"Ah!" Sissi exclaimed. "A talking ferret!" The creature seemed to get annoyed at this.

"Hey! First of all, the name's Chamo! Second, I am not a ferret, I'm an ermine! Got that? Ermine! E-R-M-I-M-E ERMINE!"

"You're the voice I heard in the factory!" Jeremie realized. Chamo and jumped in surprise.

"Ah! You were at that factory last night?-!"

"Great!" Asua complained. "And we don't even have Negi's memory-erasing spell on us!"

"You might not need it if we can stop XANA in time," the boy genius remarked.

"Yeah, but how will be able to get to the factory before Erena and Ancil?" William wondered. "By the time we reach the factory, the Supercomputer will be as good as toast."

"Hey," Chamo butted in. "I don't really get what you guys were saying, but you need to get to that abandoned factory on the river, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Jeremie said.

"And you need to get there before those two people and their freaky monsters, correct?"

"That's right."

"Then we just might be able to transport one of you there in time before they get there."

"Why only one?" Sissi asked.

"Yue's broom can carry only two or three people, and you'll probably need Konoka more than Yuna."

"Oh. That makes sense…wait, what?"

* * *

><p>Back in the boiler room, Patrick wasn't having much luck with Ancil and his Blok squad. The squad numbered six, and whenever he got close enough to attempt to stab one with the pipe he found, another one would fire at him, forcing Patrick to fall back. On top of that, Ancil was lobbing Energy Fields at him, turning the boiler room into a virtual minefield.<p>

"Give it up!" Ancil boomed. "Without your Lyoko powers, you're hopeless to fight back!" He formed another Energy Field at close range. Patrick held up the pipe in self-defense, saving his life, but melting the pipe to about a few inches above his hands.

"Er, nice fighting you!" he said, and tried to turn around and leave. Two Bloks, however, now barred the way.

"I told you," Ancil restated, "you're hopeless to win!" He charged up an Energy Field, aiming right at Patrick. The brown-haired boy tensed, preparing to attempt to dodge the attack…

**!BANG! !BANG!**

Two shots rang out, and the two Bloks at the entrance suddenly sparked, and disappeared.

"What?-!" Ancil gasped.

"**Doesn't it seem like a bad idea to put targets on your creatures?"** a female voice called from near the door. **"That just makes them easier to shoot at."** The girl was wearing a long brown trench coat with black shoulder areas and rolled up sleeves over a navy blue tank top. She had yellow shorts which had two navy blue stripes in the shape of a bikini bottom, and yellow thigh-length boots. The portion covering her thighs split into a slight V, as did the bottom half of the trench coat. In her hands were the sources of the shots: a brown handle, green barreled 16th century style gun, and a black semiautomatic pisto..

"Yuna!" Patrick cried.

"Do I know you?" Yuna questioned.

"Long story. Could you lend a hand?" Yuna took aim with the semiautomatic.

"Would a gun be better?" she smirked. She squeezed the trigger of the weapon, and shot the nearest Blok in the eye, causing it to make a full spin before disappearing. This prompted the other three Bloks to charge up their attacks. Yuna shot one of them, before sidestepping the lasers. As they began to charge up again, Yuna was able to shoot another Block. But the last one was quick, and shot an ice-blue laser at her feet. The gunslinger girl grunted, as ice began to form around her feet. She was still able to shoot the monster, but by the time she did so, both of her feet were frozen solid to the ground.

"Not bad, for a common girl," Ancil commended. He formed an Energy Field in his hands, just as Yuna pointed both guns at him.

"A shot's faster than a throw," she stated.

"But you're frozen in place, unable to move. Once you're out of ammunition, you're stuck."

"There's only one of you, and these guns have plenty of ammo!"

"**Correction: there are two of us."** Yuna aimed her second gun at Erena, who now appeared in the doorway. This momentary diversion allowed Ancil to fire his Energy Field at Yuna. She barely had time to duck out of the way of the blast, but one of the guns got scraped by the Energy Field, and melted beyond usage.

"Crap!" she cursed.

"Pick your poison, girl," Erena ordered. "Me or Ancil? Either way, you die."

"How about neither?" Patrick stated, and threw what was left of his pipe weapon at her. Xana's second-in-command yelped as she tried to fire her laser at the object. Not only did this fail, as the pipe hit her square on the nose, but the laser fired wildly, cutting through one of the steam pipes. A loud hiss erupted from the pipe, as steam poured out, quickly enveloping the room in a murky white cloud.

"You idiot!" Ancil yelled. "Now how am I supposed to see where they are?-!"

"Sowwie!" she apologized, covering her now-sore nose. Patrick used this confusion to get another pipe from near the boiler. Running back to Yuna, he began knocking the now melting ice off of her feet, enabling her to move again.

"Thanks!" she said.

"Hey, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. I'll handle Einstein's copy; you take care of Ancil."

"I don't really understand that much," she admitted, "but basically focus on the pink haired guy?"

"Pretty much." He then ducked as an Energy field whizzed over his head, signaling that the two XANA commanders had found them.

* * *

><p>"You know this isn't really bringing back any good memories!" Jeremie cried. The method of transportation that Chamo had been describing was flying – on Yue's broom. The wand could only hold three people, so Jeremie was the only person that could ride. Yue was needed to fly the broom, Jeremie was the only person here that could run the Supercomputer, and Yue surmised that anyone else aside from Konoka was too heavy to ride with her. So with great speed did the broom, with Yue in the middle, Konoka at the point, and a rather terrified Jeremie squeezing tightly to Yue's waist at the rear, take off for the factory.<p>

"It couldn't have possibly been worse than when I rode Negi's wand for the first time," Yue said.

"Why?"

"I panicked, we almost fell off, we crashed into a spider web, then fell off."

"Try being in a hijacked fighter pilot that's spinning out of control towards the ground."

"Eh?-! How the heck could you have survived that?-!"

"Er, depending on how the next few minutes play out, I'll tell you later."

"It's a good thing that Nodoka's friends gave you a bigger broom Yue!" Konoka, who was back in her regular clothes, stated. "Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have all been able to fit on here!" Just then, they saw the river bridge that led to the factory. The Tarantulas and Scorpions were just about to cross it to head into the factory.

"We'll never make it in time!" Jeremie realized. Yue leaned a bit forward.

"Not on my time! Maxima Acceleratio!" The broom suddenly picked up speed, and they shot through the skies, descending towards the bridge. As they flew just above the pavement, Renee and Shiro were barely able to turn around to look at what was coming before they shot past.

"Subsistat!" As they entered the entrance area of the building, Yue slowed the broom down, allowing her to carefully maneuver the broom down towards the floor. A rather pale Jeremie staggered off, towards the elevator.

"Never again…" he muttered. "I'll stick with my scooter."

"Shouldn't we be trying to find a staircase?" Yue asked him. "You saw us try to operate the elevator last night."

"That was because I locked the elevator at the bottom of the shaft when the security cameras alerted me of your approach," Jeremie explained, hitting the button. The gears on the top of the elevator shaft groaned as they turned, and the sound of the work elevator moving upwards grew louder. "It'll work fine now."

"Security cameras?" she stated, surprised.

"Don't worry. They only feed into the Supercomputer at the bottom of the elevator shaft. I'll explain later." The elevator arrived, and the vertical door opened.

"You take Konoka and do what you need to do here. I'll hold these two off."

"Are you sure?" Yue smiled. Renee and Shiro were

"We've been in worse odds before. I think I can handle a few people with swords and guns."

"Well, okay. Aim for the eye-like targets on the monsters. That's the only way you'll defeat them."

"Be careful, Yue!" Konoka called out to the purplette. A thumbs up could be seen from her, just as the elevator door closed.

"I'm going to need your help to stop all this," Jeremie told Konoka. "I'll get off at the first stop, then you continue down a level to the scanner room."

"Scanner room?" she asked, confused. "What's that?"

"Oh, you'll see." The elevator stopped, and the door opened to a wall and a number pattern. Jeremie typed in the entry code, and the wall opened up, revealing the computer lab. Konoka was amazed.

"Ooh!" She gasped. "It's almost like Hakase's lab in the University!" Jeremie walked out, and headed to the computer chair.

"Time's not on our side, so hurry up and get down to the next floor."

"Okay!" Konoka said, not entirely sure of what he just said. The elevator door closed as Jeremie sat in the chair. Onc the chair moved to within a comfortable distance of the computer, he attached the headset, and booted up the monitor.

"Chao?" Are you there?" The Martian appeared on the screen.

"_It's about time!"_ she huffed crossly. _"I've been trying to reach you for the last fifteen minutes!"_

"Sorry. My computer discovered that it's lactose intolerant. Where are you?"

"_I'm in the Mountain Sector, just south of the tower. I'm sending you the coordinates now."_

"Ok…got them. I'm transferring Konoka to Lyoko to assist you." Chao became surprised.

"_Eh? Konoka? So you finally voted my friends in?"_

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, Chao. XANA's sent his new friends after us in the real world. Everyone else's holed up at the school."

"_So that's why there are only Claudette and Minette guarding the tower. And why there is currently no news footage of any atta-"_

"_Wow!" _Konoka's voice cut into the conversation. Jeremie looked at the footage of the security camera in the scanner room, and saw her in the middle of the room. _"What are all these?"_

"They're scanners," Jeremie said into the intercom. Konoka jumped at the sudden sound of his voice.

"_Ah! Was that you, glasses boy?"_

"Yes, and for future reference, my name's Jeremie. I'm up in the computer room, and I'll guide you as we beat XANA together."

"_Who's XANA?"_

"I'll explain later. Get into the scanner, and I'll start the transfer procedure." A brief pause was heard.

"_Okay! I'll trust you on this one!" _Jeremie saw her walk into the scanners, allowing him to close the doors.

"_That trust factor's going to get her killed one day if she's not careful," _Chao remarked.

"But it helps us in the short haul for now. Transfer, Konoka! Scanner, Konoka! Virtualization!"

* * *

><p><em>For Your Information…<em>

_All four attires worn by the Ala Alba were canon at one point or another in Negima, as well as Yuna, Konoka's, and Yue's Pactio outfits. Asuna's Pactio outfit is a cross between the Negima?-! Armor Card and a piece of fanart, whose artist is unknown._

_Sakura is a fan creation by me as a replacement for Sissi, whose previous role as the brat was vacated. Her backstory: She's a normal girl, but has had some run-ins with Negi, and seems to be the only one not to dismiss his sneezes as a gust of wind. She's an aspiring journalist whose career was cut short shortly after Ala Alba returned, when her status of primary photographer of the Mahora Newspaper was given to Kazumi, whose artifacts allowed her to get far better shots than anyone else in Mahora. Sakura quit the journalism, and, posing as a understudy of Kazumi, goes around for freelanced jobs – if only to find out the secrets of class 3-A. Consider her a meld of old Sissi and Kazumi, with a twang of Ayaka's stubbornness and Odd's scrawny figure._

**_Odd: I'm not scrawny! I'm svelte!_**

_Be quiet, you! You're not supposed to be seen for another few chapters._

_For those who don't know, 3-A in Japan is the equivalent of ninth grade elsewhere. Take a guess as to which two Kadec journalists we'll see a lot of._

_Anyone who thought it would be Asuna who would be the first of the four on Lyoko…yeah, I did too._

_So, as I said before, the second half of this chapter will now be placed in a greatly expanded Chapter 4 – of which we'll see a little sneak peak in just a bit. This pushes back a filler chapter to the next season, but it also gets out a lot of explanatory stuff out of the way, meaning that there are now only two more chapters standing between here and the start of the actual plot. Plus, now I have the time to write out an awesome battle scene in Lyoko! So as usual, read and review all of my works, and stay tuned for the next chapter!_

* * *

><p>Chao: Welcome to Lyoko, guys!<p>

Konoka: Chao Lingshen!

Yue: I thought you went back into the future!

Chao: Long story short, I hit a speed bump.

Asuna: Hey, would you guys pick up the pace down there?-! Renee's not exactly making this a picnic with me!

Yuna: Sorry if we're a bit outnumbered here!

William: Guess it's our turn to lend a hand then.

Next time! **The White Wings of Lyoko**! See you then!


End file.
